Harry Potter and the Magical Guardian
by Sursr
Summary: What if Lily and Petunia had been able to reconcile while Lily was still early in school? If the two remained close until Lily was forced to go into hiding? What if Harry knew a lot about his mother, and wanted to be like her rather than his famous father? What impact would that have on a certain headmaster's plan to have a young Harry enter the magical world hoping for an escape?
1. Chapter 0: Prologue

AN: My update schedule isn't the most consistent, but I am still trying to put out at least a chapter a month. Any new chapter will be posted on a Wednessday morning EST.

I own nothing of Harry Potter, I'm just working with J.K. Rowling's characters and world (with a few characters of my own).

Prologue

**1 Nov, 1981**

Vernon Dursley took a sip of his tea as he watched the evening news on the telly, wincing slightly at the overly sweet taste of the weight drops his wife had put in it, but happy that his neck was finally distinguishable from the rest of his torso. Petunia had almost spilled some of it while handing it to him, something on the news about owls flying around in daylight and freak shooting stars all over London had spooked her. As soon as he'd taken the cup she turned and sped to the back, shouting about her roses needing a little extra fertilizer.

"Maybe owls are bad for roses?" Vernon muttered to himself as the newsman continued his story of many groups of strange people in robes gathering and celebrating in pubs in many British cities. _Robes? Like bathrobes? In public? Nutters should be locked up, no need for that freakish nonsense in proper society._

Five minutes later he still hadn't heard Petunia return from her garden and decided to put his cup by the sink and go help her shoo the owls. Vernon stopped as he went to open the door to the kitchen, on the other side he could hear Petunia softly sobbing. _Was her garden ruined before she got out? I would have thought I'd hear her screaming then…_

"Petunia dear, whats…" Vernon started as he opened the door but trailed off in shock. He hadn't seen his wife like _this _since her parents died right after they started dating, but she didn't have any more close family or anything like that. Did she? She looked up at him from the counter, her face blotchy and red from tears she was trying desperately to keep quiet. Vernon spied a large glass of iced drink in front of her and grabbed it.

"Pet, a soda before bed isn't the best idea." As he picked it up the smell hit him. _Brandy, and not a drop else_. "What's the matter dear? Did those owls ruin your garden? Was there a rat out there or something?" He asked as he put his hand on his wife's back.

"SHE'S DEAD VERNON!" Petunia wailed, sputtering into his chest as she held him for support, all hope of holding it in abandoned, "THEY'RE DEAD! Both of them…they're… and he's…" Dudley began crying in the background after a moment, woken by his mother's frantic shouting, Petunia took a moment to calm herself before stoically heading upstairs to get him, leaving a stunned, confused Vernon behind.

In her absence, Vernon had time to finish taking stock of his surroundings. It wasn't hard to spot what was wrong, "We don't pay for the sunday papers..." Vernon may not; but it seemed Petunia did, **Special Edition of the Sunday Prophet** the paper said, "Prophet? Could they mean Profit?" He mused aloud, "What kind of hack paper is getting my wife so worked up, is it from a soap opera? I didn't think she'd be into something abnormal like horoscopes." He got his answer when he looked at the top headline: **Wizarding World Saved: You-Know-Who defeated by Boy-Who-Lived!**

_Wizarding world? You-Know-Who? What the blazes? _

But it became clearer as he read, James and Lily _Potter_ killed… One-year-old son miraculously survived… _Oh no, _Vernon realized, _They're dead, _she'd screamed,_ both of them_. Petunia never talked about her sister, she told Vernon while they were dating that Lily Evans was a layabout who'd gotten hitched to a rich heir that was drinking his fortune away. But what the hell was this paper talking about, _Wizards_? The article called James Potter an 'Auror', and Vernon could tell from the context that that was some kind of bobby… or maybe a soldier? "Defeated and captured numerous Death Eaters in the line of duty?" He muttered, _was this man some kind of war hero?_

Petunia returned to the kitchen, clutching to a now quietly sleeping Dudley like a lifeline, as Vernon read the article for a second time. He hadn't even noticed the pictures the first time, but there was no denying that they were moving. Like looped footage on the telly, a group of robed men were walking around a blown-out house, smoke streaming from a hole blasted out of the second floor directing others to bag items on the ground before it looped. Vernon took a sip of Petunia's brandy for himself.

_**The Lord and Lady Potter are survived by their son, Harry (1). When approached by journalists for the **_**Prophet**_** on his way to Gringotts Bank, Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore promised to make an official statement at a later date, but told **_**Prophet**_** journalists that the child, who the public has dubbed 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' for his miraculous survival of the Killing Curse cast by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, has been moved to a safe location to protect him from remaining Death Eaters.**_

Vernon and Petunia talked for an hour about the truth of her sister, Lily. When the newsman on the telly added a gas explosion in Godric's Hollow to his late-night cycle, a new bout of crying started up from from Petunia. At first, Vernon was worried that she would bring her family's freakishness into the house now that this terrorist wasn't going around attacking people related to the normal world. He was quickly disabused of that notion when she told him that they had been using magic for almost_ three years_ without him noticing anything out of the ordinary. Creams to stop bleeding and close cuts with no scarring, pastes that heal burns and boils overnight, hair products that could make even Petunia's stringy hair the envy of the neighborhood…

His wife had been using bottled magic to make their lives easier, and passing it off as "Herbal Remedies", recipes taught by her mother, since they met. Turns out they were actually magic potions that Lily had learned about at some school for magic people. Petunia told Vernon that she was trying to protect him by keeping it from him, just like Lily protected _her_ by estranging herself from the family before she graduated. If they had been too involved they might have been attacked by this terrorist from the news.

Vernon eventually asked her to let him sleep on this, and they'd talk more tomorrow, maybe even try to find out what this "Chief Warrock Bundeboor" planned to do with Harry. After all, it wouldn't do for Dudley not to know his cousin. Especially with as much as Petunia obviously loved and now missed her sister.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"You can't be serious, Albus! I've been watching them all day and these are the absolute _worst_ sort of muggles imaginable! They couldn't be more different from magical kind! Their boy is a right terror too! It's quiet now, but I've only been gone for about forty-five minutes for some dinner, and the child was screaming for sweets and toys every moment he was awake." The stern looking woman angrily protested to the aged, white bearded man securing a note to the small basket in which slept the newly minted Boy-Who-Lived.

"Now Minerva, you must understand," Albus began, stopping once again to wait for Hagrid to let out an exceptionally long, loud wail for James and Lily; the silencing charm he'd put up when he first arrived all that kept the whole neighborhood from waking up, too bad he and Minerva were inside the charm area and could hear the blubbering half-giant at full volume, "Not twelve hours after the Potters were dead the Malfoys were angling to have custody of young Harry granted to them. I couldn't risk a death eater; or worse yet, another _hidden_ death eater getting to him. Here, he can grow up safe from the dangers our world still has in it. This way he has a chance at a normal, if muggle, childhood; and in ten years when he returns to us, he will be ready to learn. The fame of this night will not have swollen his head, or worse, exposed him to the dark. I have prepared a letter explaining the situation, and why young Harry has been placed in their care. I'm sure they will care for him. After all, they are family."

"Jus don' seem righ' though Dumbledore. Leavin' James an Lily's boy wit muggles." Hagrid blubbered, for some reason using a normal sized handkerchief that looked comical in his giant hands. "I 'member Lily talkin 'bout 'er sister in sixth an seventh years, I do. She dinn't like magic, thought it were a waste of time or summat. Said they were'n talkin since Lily's parents were killed." Hagrid trailed off, his eyes pleading with Dumbledore.

"Don't worry, Hagrid. Before I leave I shall put up wards around the house such that no wizard meaning harm against young Harry can find it." Albus patted the half-giant's arm, "You should go Hagrid, you can do no more here tonight."

"Aye, guess I'll go an give Sirius 'is bike back. Awful nice o' 'im to let me borrow it to bring 'Arry to ya." Hagrid said as he turned and mounted up on the magical, flying, motorbike and drove away.

"Thats nice, Albus, but you aren't planning to leave him like that are you?" McGonagall asked, indicating where baby Harry slept in a basket on the front porch of the Dursley's home at Number 4 Privet Drive.

Albus gestured at the light switch beside the front door, "The light is still on, Minerva, so they must at least come out to turn it off. If they have already expressed a dislike of the magical world then I see no reason to invade their home at this late hour. When they go to sleep tonight they will first have to come out and turn the light off, they will find him then. In the meantime I will apply a warming charm." Minerva frowned, if they don't like magic they might not want _Harry_ intruding in their home either, but finally nodded as she saw Albus cast the charm. Then, she turned and with a _crack_ she disappeared.

_So, Petunia Evans (_what was her married name again_? _Digby?_) doesn't like magic? _Albus smiled, if they already disliked magic then they would likely resent a wizard intruding on their peace on sheer principal. Albus knew how strong prejudice could be. Pureblood families routinely hid or, in extreme cases, exiled squib children just for lacking magic, the reverse was true as well; and a muggle who breaks ties with her sister during a war will definitely _not_ truly accept a reminder of that sister in her home. Albus decided to go one or three steps further than he promised to Minerva and Hagrid, ensuring that no part of the magical world would ever find Harry Potter or the Durley family until time for Harry to rejoin them in just under ten years. Plenty of time for an accepting Dursley family to have made him pliable and looking for an escape.

Albus Dumbledore chuckled as he returned the light he had stolen from the street lamps of Privet Drive one by one. Then, as a last act of petty spite, he doused the porch light with his _deluminator_ and apparated away with a _crack_.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Vernon Dursley was rarely, ever, late; he liked living by a schedule, thank you very much. But the events of last night had kept both he and his wife in a restless, slightly drunk, sleep; and when he finally woke up it was to a pounding headache from the brandy. He was already contemplating calling in sick for the morning just to avoid the reprimand.

A half-hour later Vernon was heading out the door when he saw the last thing he could have expected, even after the shocks of last night. Sitting on his front porch was a sleeping baby in a basket, holding an envelope that looked to be made of some old-looking parchment. He swivelled his head, looking for whatever horrible parent would play a prank using their baby like this; seeing no one, he examined the child more closely.

_They wouldn't? Oh God of course they would, the freaks! No, even if you're freaks you can't be so nuts that you'd go leaving a toddler outside in bloody November!_

Vernon easily recognized the messy black haired baby in front of him from one of those moving photos that Petunia had pulled down from where she'd hidden it in the attic, right beside some kind of _magic potion brewing _station he'd somehow never seen. She said that he stored all his things in the garage, making it easy to keep from him.

The lightning bolt scar on the boy's head may be new, but this was unmistakably his nephew Harry Potter. "Oh shite." Vernon muttered, then in a louder voice, still too low to be heard by the neighbors, "Petunia, draw a warm bath, the freaks left your nephew on our bloody doorstep! The boy is likely freezing, there's only a blanket here!" As he spoke, he grabbed the basket and took it inside

_At least this excuse will get me more leeway at Gunning's than a hangover,_ Vernon thought resignedly.

An hour later: after giving the kids a warm bath, some of Dudley's favorite pudding, and putting him both kids down for a short nap, the two elder Dursleys were trying their hardest to keep their composure reading Headmaster Albus Dumbledore's note explaining Harry's circumstances.

"No executable will? Does he think i'm bloody stupid? I know she had a will! Her husband came from old money, so I know he had to have one too! If the godfather, Potter's friend Something-or-Other Black, couldn't take him he was supposed to go to his godmother to be raised, some "Longbottom" woman Lily was friends with at school that had had a boy the same week. I think _her_ name is Alice. She told me the very last time we spoke, when she apologized for not being able to choose _me_ as godmother because of the war. And the reason hasn't even changed, according to _him_ those Death Eaters are still going to be out there at least for a while." Petunia seethed, her voice still weak from sobbing the night before.

"And, not to be crass, but we already have a boy of our own! How are we supposed to take care of two with no support from his parents? Surely there must be some kind of inheritance!" Vernon immediately realized his mistake as Petunia all but _hissed_ at him. _She's so beautiful when she gets that fire in her, _he thought to himself as he said, "Love, if we're going to keep the boy-"

She snorted at him, "If indeed."

"Then this may actually help. This Dumbledore fool's right that the boy shouldn't grow up with hero worship. He'll get a big head. And you saw how creepy that article was about Harry, if they're all like that he'll…" Vernon waved his hands distractedly, "I can't even begin to think what that kind of upbringing would do to one of _them_. But a normal boy growing up like that would be a useless layabout just like your sister was supposed to be." He held his hands up defensively as Petunia brandished her, how empty glass, glaring at him, "Now, Pet, calm down. I understand why you said what you did about them. This Potter bloke sounded like some kind of Special Forces in that news article and I understand the need for cover stories in situations like that!

But you have to see what I mean," He continued, "If we raised him otherwise we'd have to deal with all these fre-_wizards _poking around. He's already being given a bloody nickname by their newspaper like he's some kind of celebrity! At one year old! This way, the man's promised 'no magical persons will have any contact with you until the child is ready to return to us'. That sounds like something I can appreciate. If we're going to raise him."

Petunia's eye widened in shock, "Vernon, if he's as insane as he seems by putting Harry out there all night, he's probably not smart enough to realize that I still interact with the magical world." She sighed at the blank stare she got from her husband, "Oh seriously dear, I received the magical newspaper last night. I also have potion ingredients shipped here and convert normal pounds to their money by mail to pay for it! If no one in the magical world can find us then when I need more ingredients we are going to have to drive into London proper! Also, if that's the case, I'm going to need to go in the next couple days, Dudley needs more teething ointment. Harry will too."

Vernon gaped at just how much contact his house had with the magical world without his knowledge while Petunia took a few calming breaths as she looked at the sleeping forms of Dudley and Harry, "I don't appreciate how he seems to make it look like Harry's situation is James and Lily's fault somehow. It's so wrong and out of place, it makes me think he wanted us to resent them or something since our cover story on their side was that we had a falling out. What do you think Vernon?"

Vernon started at that, he was a very successful sales representative at Grunning's for a reason, and now that he was thinking about it this _did _seem like a sale. Somehow. But what would he be selling in a 'here's your penniless orphan nephew, now you have to take care of him' note?

"I think you're right, Pet. It's almost like he thought you and Lily weren't close, but then…"_ Why would he put the boy here if he thought that? What if he was counting on it?_ Petunia looked at him, watching the gears turn, "Yeah, he's the 'Chief Warlock' which, I don't know, but it sounds like maybe a government committee head or perhaps some kind of magic general or something, but _also_ the headmaster of their school?"

_How can anyone have two positions of such importance, that are that different, and exercise each of them to satisfaction? There's no way. What kind of society do they have that one man can have all that power?_

"You said there was just the one school for them in the whole country right? So he should have known every single family in Britain with magic children, why did it have to be here? Those ward-shield-things sort of make sense; but really, if that school is so special why wouldn't they take him there for a time, at least until they'd found all these other crooks?"

"And Lily had told me that the headmaster was some famous wizard too. Her first year she was so happy to be in the same house that the headmaster had been in. Apparently there was an evil wizard. Maybe his name was 'Wendell Ald'? Working with Hitler; and Dumbledore defeated him in '45 in a duel. Like, an actual man-versus-man duel like medieval knights. Lily always wondered why Dumbledore didn't just go after this new evil wizard, the one the papers called "You-Know-Who". I think she said his name was Shoal-de… Something french sounding with 'mort' at the end. I know enough frog-speak to recognize 'death' but the rest was in one ear and out the other. Anyways, he had been causing trouble since the fifties and Lily thought that if Dumbledore ever confronted this 'Mort' fellow then there would be peace in a week. Instead he was leading some kind of guerrilla warfare nonsense."

_That_ sounded wrong to Vernon. What kind of war hero who single-handedly beat magic Hitler becomes timid only five years later?

"What if he couldn't? What if there was something saying he couldn't. Some magic doohickey perhaps, or some trick Mort used. He turns to hit-and-run to figure it out, but whatever happened last night happened and interrupted him. You do the same thing in sales sometimes. You bring the product to hard customers in different ways, pitch it fast until you find the right fit that speaks to that client." Vernon had a truly scary thought, all of this should have led this 'Dumbledore' to be thankful for being pulled from the fire. Should have, unless Dumbledore was _exactly _the salesman Vernon was starting to suspect, if Dumbledore thought he _had_ beaten Mort and someone else was getting the credit, "someone like a baby." He muttered in growing horror. A hero whose star was fading, a new threat he couldn't beat, and a child that did it for him.

_When did the boy get dropped off here? _Vernon looked up at the front door, to the _inside_ light switch for the front porch. A light switch that was still clearly in the 'on' position.

"Did you turn the porch light off last night Pet?" Vernon asked with concern creeping into his voice.

"Hmm? I don't… No, actually. When I went to do so I peeked out the window and saw it was already…" She froze at the look of horrified realization on her husband's face.

"Pet, you should take the boy, _today,_ and look for that magic alley you were talking about. If that man is doing this as some kind of petty revenge against Harry we need to make sure their kind and can help us. We know at least two families that his parents thought could keep him safe in their world. If he really is vindictive, and I'm starting to think he is, we'll need to keep ourselves from attracting attention. The note made it clear that we couldn't move, so they'll probably be watching for that. I think the man draws a line a killing an orphan for prestige. But I think he was expecting you to hate your sister, maybe she told people (perhaps even _him_) that to sell her separation from you, and that hate was supposed to transfer to the boy. It would explain why his letter to us tries to hard to blame the boys parent's for his circumstances."

Vernon frowned deeper, "I'm not sure I understand. It seems he thinks Harry stole his spotlight, but at the same time he intends to drag the boy back into their world in ten years. In his shoes I'd drop Harry off here and tell the magical world he died."

"How can he think he can get away with this?"

"It's right there in what you said they call _us, _love. Muggles indeed. To them, we're just dumb _Mugs_ that they can make do whatever they want."

While Petunia took a cab into London, Vernon contacted child services. The man on the line happily congratulated him on so generously adopting his nephew immediately after Vernon gave him his address. Vernon began to get creeped out by the monotone, repetitive responses he was getting from the man when he pressed for more details on how that could _possibly_ already be finalized and hung up. Apparently it was pretty easy to tell when someone was bewitched, at least once you knew that was even in the realm of possibility. Petunia returned only a few hours later with Harry.

Despite going there many times both alone and with Lily (though not at all in the last three or so years), Petunia could not find the entrance to Diagon Alley.


	2. Chapter 1: Do You Believe in Magic?

Chapter 1: Do You Believe in Magic?

Things were not always normal around the boy named Harry Potter. His family, the Dursleys, were completely average and ordinary folk and did their best to keep Harry acting as normal as possible. His Uncle Vernon was a major sales representative at Grunnings Drill Manufacturers. His Aunt Petunia spent most days puttering around the house cleaning and gardening. Lastly, his slightly older cousin Dudley was a normal, if slightly large, boy who was only interested in eating and watching the telly.

But Harry Potter was a magnet for the objectively _un_ordinary. The lights shattering during a thunderstorm or turning on on their own whenever he woke up from a nightmare was pretty common when he was younger. He could also swear that sometimes when he was reaching for something it would just kind of move into his hand. As he got older the strangeness became less common but more noticeable. His very first week in year 2 of primary school he'd apparently turned his teacher's hair blue when she was getting on Dudley for not doing his homework. The teacher got mad at Dudley, but when they got home that night Harry's aunt and uncle told him he couldn't have dessert and that he needed to not get angry so easy.

Later that year, some bigger boys chased him throwing rocks when Harry suddenly found himself on the roof of the school. The fire department was called in to get him down, and his family was especially angry with him after they made sure that he was okay and that the other boys were punished. He was grounded for two whole weeks over that.

Harry wasn't quite sure why he was being punished, it's not like _he_ could turn their teacher's hair blue, and people can't just teleport like in _Doctor Who._ But Aunt Petunia told him that he'd understand when he was a little older, and play with her straight, stringy hair with a sad look in her eye. This had been the way of things since Harry could remember. Even learning about his parents hadn't explained the strangeness.

Back when he turned six, his aunt and uncle had finally told him how his parents died. Prior to that the only hint he'd ever had was when his Aunt Marge visited and complained about them being drunks. Aunt Petunia set he and Dudley straight on that though. That his mum was training to be a nurse and his father was like a special police officer and they'd protecting him from a very bad man that attacked their home. That he should always be proud of them.

Harry wasn't sure why that made him strange, but when he heard their story he _was_ proud of his parents. His aunt didn't have any pictures of his dad, apparently he was doing some secret spy stuff and they had only met once, but the picture of his mother on his bedside table was his most prized possession. It was the last thing he looked at every night, beside a picture of his new family together in the back yard in front of Aunt Petunia's prized rose bushes. At least he finally learned why he had to cover up the scar on his forehead with his aunt's makeup whenever they were out in large crowds. It would be bad if some member of the bad guy's gang saw it.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**13 July, 1988**

Petunia wasn't completely sure when Harry's birthday was, just that it was in the latter part of July, the note Lily sent with the picture of their family didn't mention it specifically. Because of this, the Dursleys celebrated a joint birthday for Dudley and Harry in mid-July. Petunia had long ago decided to herself that she couldn't wallow in what 'Mort had taken from _her_ when her sister died (She'd looked back through the couple _Daily Prophets_ she'd saved and couldn't find the man's name printed anywhere; just that stupid, hyphenated moniker). Instead, Petunia vowed to remember what _Harry_ had lost, and to provide it to him as best she could.

The family was currently enjoying a trip to the zoo for the boy's 8th birthdays. Petunia wasn't really the best with money, and hadn't realized how much of her own money she'd moved into the magical world before that fateful Halloween. Vernon had been having a rough patch at work, so they'd had to go on a Monday to avoid peak prices, the kids would have their party that friday night. The Polkiss siblings and a few of the other kids from the neighborhood were getting together for chickens on the grill.

Vernon had suggested they go to a roller coaster park, since he hated them and would be at work and not have to go when they went. But the zoo was one of the few attractions that both boys enjoyed, and Petunia wanted to make sure both of them had fun (Harry disliked roller coasters, but was ok with water rides). Though, Dudley prefered big animals like lions and bears; while Harry for whatever reason had always had a strange affinity for reptiles, especially snakes.

_I guess even his taste in animals has to be strange_, Petunia thought as she watched Dudley and Harry gawk at a large constrictor of some kind that was coiled up and looking out the glass front of the enclosure, picture worthy if you liked big snakes.

_Of course the animal they agree on is a giant snake._

The snake kept swaying back and forth for the boys, flicking its tongue out randomly. Then, Dudley turned to Harry and made a pleading motion with his hands, _oh dear_. Right when Petunia began hurriedly walked across the room there was a scream from one of the patrons as the snake slithered right out of the enclosure. The glass had vanished.

Petunia was able to grab the boys and get them out of the reptile house without further incident, but what came after left her truly wishing for the first time in years that she could get back into Diagon Alley.

"Harry, what have I told you about getting excited in public like that? You have to control the strangeness around you or people will start asking questions of the family." Petunia gently chided him, _just four more years, then he can learn to control it_.

"But Aunt Petunia, I was just talking to the snake. It was Dudley who got excited."

_What?! Talking to a snake?, wait, _"Dudley?"

"Yeah mom. Harry was hissing weird stuff and the snake was hissing back! Harry said the snake said it wished it could have more room to move around and hunt and I thought, you know. It's not right to keep someone locked up like that is it? It's not fun to look at them anymore if you know they're sad."

"... What did you do then, Duddykins?"

"Well, I asked Harry if he could like, break the glass. But he said he didn't want to risk any more strangeness in public than talking to the snake. I was kinda mad the snake wasn't gonna get to go out like he wanted and then suddenly the glass was just gone! The snake turned back and hissed as it was leaving and Harry said it said 'thanks'. It was so cool!"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

After the zoo, Petunia took the kids to Mcdonald's for an early dinner (Dudley was showing the same weight issues as his father, so this was a treat for the family) and after putting them to bed that night she went into the attic and broke out Lily's potions notes.

"I'm sure it was just a coincidence darling. No reason to go digging through this old stuff. Even if it's magic, it's got to go bad doesn't it?" Vernon shivered when he looked at some of the things in his attic, "Frog eggs? Newt eyes? Petunia most of these things will have gone sour or… something… up here after all this long."

"Vernon, I have to know. Harry has always been able to tell that the magic is from him somehow. Dudley seemed to _really think _that he made that glass disappear. I need to know!"

"I'm not sure how I became the voice of reason here, Pet, but if that's the case we can find out about it when he turns eleven."

"...Ok Vernon. You're right"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

For the next two days while Vernon was at work Petunia was largely unavailable, either digging up her garden or digging through books the boys weren't allowed to look at in the attic. The morning of the third day Petunia woke up feeling ill, that night she was quite sick, and the next morning Vernon was forced to call off from work to take care of her.

Dudley and Harry were told to watch the Dr. Who tapes they'd rented for the now cancelled party that had been planned for that friday while Vernon took care of their sick aunt. However the first episode they chose had Daleks in it and both boys decided there were chores they could do.

Vernon loved sci-fi, and Dudley and Harry usually did too, but whenever killer-robots were on screen both boys fell apart without him. Harry didn't like the flashing green lights that often accompanied them and Dudley prefered his robots dumb and funny like in Star Wars. Dudley began rinsing the dishes that had been piling up in the sink; while Harry went out to weed Aunt Petunia's garden, since she wasn't able to.

It had only been a couple days since Aunt Petunia was out here, so there weren't that many weeds to pull, but after Harry had finished he looked around at the areas that his aunt had been working in before she got sick. It probably wasn't the flowers or herbs that got her sick, so Harry started putting that area to rights. Aunt Petunia had done a good job of uprooting several herbs, as well as a small pink rose bush, but Harry was pretty sure he could salvage it so he got to work replanting.

_~Watch where you toss the earth, human~ _

Harry looked to his right and saw a strange brightly-banded little snake slithering from under a clot of dirt he'd carelessly moved aside. ~Sorry~ he hissed back.

_~Speaker? I sensed magic in this place, but to find a speaker so far from the land of my nest. Well met.~ _The snake had freed itself from the dirt and coiled on itself to raise its head in greeting.

_~Magic? I don't know about that, my aunt and uncle have always said magic isn't real whenever I asked how about stage magicians on the telly did it. But strangeness happens around me sometimes… and I've talked to a snake before. At the zoo a few days ago, and a couple times before that on the playground at school.~_ Harry wasn't sure how he could talk to snakes, but magic seemed as simple an explanation as anything. He looked closer at the snake in front of him, _~I don't think I've ever seen a snake like you before. Where did you come from?~_

_~A human-child took me from the place with other snakes and I was kept by it in invisible walls in the dark. The large-female-human found me, the large-male-human threw me into the wood behind their nest. I tasted the magic around your nest, hunted my way here.~ _The snake paused while Harry got comfortable on the ground, sitting cross-legged. It studied the boy for a moment before continuing, _~I have been here for six passings of the sun. Why do you not come out before, speaker? The tall-female-human was always before.~_

_~That's my aunt… the sister of my mother.~_ Harry added as the snake looked at him quizzically, _~This is her garden, but she's really sick right now. I was just weeding for her, and righting the plants she had messed up when she got sick. Normally she does all of this kind of stuff herself but my cousin and I wanted to help.~_

_~I could taste the sickness.~_ The snake agreed, Harry's eyes widened at that and the snake continued, _~It smelled of something foul. Toxic.~ _The snake slithered to the smallish tree in the back corner of the garden before carefully wrapping around one of its roots as Harry got up to follow, _~I told you I came here because I sensed magic. This is a magic tree. Its scales repel dark magic, and only someone who knows of magic would grow it. If the tall-human-female planted the garden, she knows of magic too.~ _The snake slithered up to Harry, _~Take me into your nest, speaker. Your tall-female-human~_

_~Aunt.~_

_~Your Aunt did not smell of strong magic herself. If she tried to make magic she may have poisoned herself. You said she kept magic from you, but she knows of it, take me into your nest, let me taste the air around her and I can perhaps show you how to help her if it is a magic toxin. The smell is weak here, I will need to be nearer to tell.~_

_~Do you really think you can do that? If you can help my aunt I'll do anything I can to repay you!~_ Harry lowered his hand to the ground and the snake slithered up and wrapped around his hand and wrist. It was only about thirty centimeters long, so it wasn't hard.

When Harry walked through the kitchen from the back with a snake wrapped around his hand on his way upstairs Dudley put the broom down and followed. Uncle Vernon exploded the moment Harry walked through the door into his and Petunia's room with a snake.

"Boy, WHAT ARE YOU DOING BRINGING A SNAKE INTO MY HOUSE? THERE'S A LIMIT TO WHAT I'LL TOLERATE IN MY HOME! IF THAT THING BIT HER!"

Vernon continued to rant as Harry explained, knowing from experience that his uncle could still hear him, "He said that he saw Aunt Petunia in the gardens before. He said he smelled her getting sick. Getting _magic_ sick." Harry stressed the word, praying his uncle wouldn't get madder about all the strangeness he was bringing in the house. That it wasn't _his_ fault that Aunt Petunia was sick.

Harry needn't have worried, the moment he said _'magic'_ Vernon went silent. You could have heard a pin drop in the intervening moments. Instead, they heard the snake on Harry's hand begin hissing.

_~I taste it, Speaker. Aged magic instead of fresh, it is poisoning her slowly.~ _The snake looked back at Harry and flicked its tongue in the direction of the hallway, _~She works the magic somewhere within your nest. Puts it into water and mud.~_

Harry looked at his uncle as the serpent continued hissing near his ear and almost wilted under the look he was getting. One part fear, one part confusion, and Uncle Vernon didn't like being afraid. "Uncle Vernon, he," raising the snake, "says that there's somewhere in the house that Aunt Petunia makes magic. Can you show me? He says he wants to try and help her." Vernon looked unsure of the boy and his reptile, "Please Uncle Vernon, he says Aunt Petunia is dying." Harry's lip was trembling as he fought not to cry.

Vernon did his best not to look at the snake and only the child he'd been raising for seven years, but a pained groan from his wife caused him to glance at her and steel his resolve as he answered, "All right, Harry. I'll show you."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Harry and Vernon had started by trying to go through the potions books looking for antidotes based on the things they saw open around the small cauldron, only to realize they had no idea what half the things were and most recipes took days to make anyways! But once again the snake came to the rescue, finding a jar with three stones in it that it said smelled like '~_the opposite of sickness~_'. Rechecking Lily's notes they found a reference to a "Bezoar", a stone that would counter most poisons or toxins if swallowed with slightly warm water. Lily's notes and help from the snake led to Harry and Vernon finding that two of the stones had lost their potency, but one was still strong. The two returned to Petunia's bedside armed with a glass of warm water with a lumpy stone in it to a sight that almost made Vernon drop the glass.

Dudley was asleep in the bed, holding his mother as he rested his head on her shoulder. They were both glowing with a soft, white luminescence. Vernon sighed as he took in the sight. Then soldiered on, lifting Petunia and coaxing her into drinking the mixture. The result was almost immediate, as her breathing evened and her colour began returning. He decided to leave Dudley where he was, glow and all.

Vernon sat on the couch while Harry set some water to boil for tea, the snake now comfortably draped over his shoulders. He brought the tea back into the family room and set a cup on the table in front of his uncle, then backed up and sat on the chair farthest from his uncle's favorite recliner, all while keeping his gaze fixed on the floor. When he looked up, his uncle was having a staring contest with the snake. Harry couldn't decide if Vernon was thinking or merely glaring, but then he broke the stare and looked at Harry.

"How long are you planning on keeping that in here?"

"Um… well…"

"We are not just keeping a random bloody snake for no good reason. Your strangeness has to have limits in polite society, Harry."

"You mean magic?" Harry asked tentatively, when his uncle winced he worried he'd pushed too far but his uncle proved him wrong.

"Yes, I mean… _that_. Magic" _That's the first time he's actually said the word all afternoon, _Harry thought, "You get it from your parents, both of them. When Petunia wakes up she can tell you more about it. Now this snake…"

"I promised him out in the garden," Harry interrupted his uncle and began gushing, "I promised that I'd do anything I could for him if he could save Aunt Petunia. Um, Uncle Vernon… he says that for a snake to be the partner of a… a wizard… who can talk to snakes is a big honor. He wants to stay with me, he says he'll keep the mice and other snakes away too!" Harry couldn't help the pleading tone that had crept into his voice.

Vernon appraised the two, "Is it poisonous?"

_~Do you have poison little friend?~_ Vernon fought to suppress a shiver when Harry hissed at the snake. It was easier when Petunia's life was in imminent danger.

_~No, speaker. My kind hunted the venomed ones in our homeland. We can resist the death that seeps from their fangs, but there is no death in my own.~_

"No Uncle Vernon. He says he's a kind of snake that doesn't get hurt bad from poison snakes and he isn't poisonous himself."

Vernon took a sip of his tea and closed his eyes. After a minute and another sip or two he responded, "It does not leave your room unless you are personally carrying it to the garden." Harry released a sigh of relief, "You will _not_ take it to or from your room while we have company, and I expect to not have to deal with a single rat or snake in her garden till you go off to school in a few years."

He held his hand out to Harry's questioning look and continued, "You and Dudley will not tell your friends about the snake. That includes Piers Polkiss down the street, you'll have to make sure it's in the garden whenever he's over. Finally, you will have to either do extra chores, or find a neighbor who will pay you for simple chores to help pay for the thing's upkeep. Am I clear?"

"Yes Uncle Vernon, I can do all of that. No problem. Uhm… what did you mean 'go off to school'?"

"... There's a school for _fre-_wizards like you. Your parents both went there, and in a few years you will too. I'm not answering any more questions about that without your aunt." Vernon studied the worried look on Harry's face that had been there since his almost '_freak_' slipup. "I'm not going to lie to you Harry, I'm not sure I like your parent's kind. Your mother, according to your aunt, was a truly great person. Your father probably had to be as well for her to have married him."

"Sadly," he continued, "pretty much the only thing I know about him personally is that he's a war hero; and I'll always be thankful to your family for how they protected us, and especially you. But many of the others are just _freaks_. No other word for it. Unable to fit in with normal people, and lacking basic sense. Petunia said that in the few times she was around _them_ she'd found that they didn't even know how to say 'electricity'. Much less what it is. Every now and then while we drive through town your aunt will point out someone so strangely dressed he's drawing a bleedin' crowd and say, 'They're dressed like a wizard, Vernon, keep driving.'"

"Does that mean you and Aunt Petunia are hiding from them. Wizards?"

"Just for a while. but I'm going to leave it up to Petunia whether we tell you the 'why' now or to wait, and you're going to have to accept her decision." Vernon thought for a moment, "One last thing. If they stop glowing before they wake up don't mention it to either of them. We are going to assume that was a side effect of whatever magic Petunia was messing with and not bring it up again."

"Yes sir." _I'm magic? I'm a wizard? _Harry thought to himself. That_ explains the strangeness._

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The first thing that happened when Aunt Petunia woke the next morning was for her to just about need medical help _again_ as she shrieked and fell and almost hit her head when she saw Harry's snake wrapped around his upper arm as he carried it outside. After explaining to her what he and Harry (mostly Harry) had done to help her, she confessed to Vernon that she had tried brewing a potion that would tell if Dudley was magic. Vernon scoffed and pointed out that all the weirdness happened around Harry, and from there the two of them finished explaining to both boys what was happening.

They explained about magic, and why they had to keep it secret; that Dumbledore had left Harry there with no way to contact the magical world for support or information. Even without Vernon's speculation about him having some nefarious or vengeful motive, Harry and Dudley both could tell that Dumbledore wasn't exactly sane. Who leaves a toddler out in the cold? But the idea that people were calling _Harry_ a hero for that night was ridiculous. They shouldn't have been lavishing praise on "_Boy-Who-Lived"_ for defeating Mort (until Harry knew what his name actually was_ that's_ what he'd call him, not some long, spooky, fake name). They should be honoring the real heroes, his _Parents-Who-Died, _who most definitely were the reason _Mort _died that night.

After pressing into them that nothing about it could leave the house, Petunia told both Harry and Dudley all the stories she could remember of Harry's parents, especially Lily. How she came home from magic school, Hogwarts, for Christmas her first year and Aunt Petunia had hated her for being so weird. Also for leaving _her, _Petunia and Lily had been very close before Lily went to school, the boys had learned; and Petunia thought that Lily leaving home meant she didn't want her "normal" sister around anymore.

But Lily was persistent, and when she came home that summer she brought tons of notes and extra books and taught their mother how to brew 'household potions'. Magic that Petunia said was easy to blend in with the regular world. Most simple potions just required you to be allowed to know about magic, not actually have it yourself, so muggles could brew and use them too. At one point she'd pulled out a jar of something and said that it was magic ointment for cuts that left no scars; but Harry's new snake friend had warned them that it was starting to smell of "burning" and would need to be disposed of soon, much to Petunia's disappointment.

Harry was also pleasantly surprised to learn that the tree in the back of the garden was, in fact, magical. His aunt called it a 'Wiggentree' and said it did exactly what the snake suggested, its bark warded off a lot of lesser monsters, and was used in potions for the same effect. When Harry pressed, Petunia admitted that her beautiful pink roses were magical too. Harry remembered seeing his aunt and uncle drinking tea from the roses, but his aunt got mad and said that he couldn't ask any more about that until he was thirty. Harry got the feeling that had nothing to do with _magic_.

While Petunia lamented that she didn't have any other kind of magical plant that she could show Harry, he was still quite interested in the fact that the snake seemed to understand magic on some level as well. Maybe _he _could teach them something too, though Harry had resolved not to ask him about the roses just in case.

After she'd finished her story Petunia asked Harry to come upstairs with her alone, as they climbed the stairs she told him that she had done something she considered almost unforgivable and it was time for her to apologize and finally try to make up for it.

He wanted to be mad when she gave it to him, but he was enraptured almost immediately. He started crying, Petunia started crying, and soon they were both holding each other for dear life. Through sobs Petunia explained to her nephew that she just couldn't think of a way to show him the picture without explaining magic to him, and she and Vernon had thought hiding magic until he was older was the best way to protect him.

That night, Harry Potter went to sleep gazing at a magical picture of his parents. With tears in his eyes, he watched his mother kiss him on the forehead where she held Baby-Harry, then peck his father on the lips before both of them smiled and waved to the camera. Harry watched and waited one more loop of the picture, his evening ritual was about to be changed forever and he needed to time this first attempt perfectly.

"Goodnight mum, goodnight dad." His parents smiled and waved back to him.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Harry had always known that his mum wanted to be a doctor, and he had always harbored a desire to be the same. Now, however, his Aunt Petunia shared the real truth: Lily had studied to become a _healer_, a magic doctor, during her time at school. Harry loved the idea that his mother wanted to help everyone until his aunt told him that magic healers only helped magic people. When Harry innocently asked why wizards didn't use these potions to help non-magical people his aunt's answer made him mad:

"_Witches and Wizards tend to either dislike or look-down-on non-magical people, at best they tend to not understand us hardly at all. They call us 'Muggles', and I think they don't even realize how degrading that is. They also call it 'protecting their secrecy' to not help non-magical people, but Lily told me they used that as an excuse to muscle us around when they want as well." _She'd said.

She also warned Harry that most magical beings were clueless about how the normal world worked and pretended like it didn't matter that they tended to attract stares for their outfits, and walk into traffic whenever they went in public.

Over the next two years Petunia showed Harry his mother's notes and potions texts and Harry began asking for not only chemistry sets, but also things of a more non-magical bent like simple books on anatomy and health. Remembering how brilliant Lily was, and assuming that it was just something about the magic, Petunia went with it. She found herself enjoying having something to study again, and gladly helped Harry parse down more difficult concepts where she was able.

They couldn't actually brew potions, as they didn't want to risk any of the ingredients being contaminated again even with a reptilian divining-fork helping them, but Harry would often substitute a potion recipe for a soup or stew and practice cutting, chopping, crushing, mashing and slicing ingredients; as well as timing his stirring the way the books said to do. His mother's notes had said that learning the different ways to prepare things was the hardest part for her. Learning to cook, and sometimes experiment with cooking, was a nice side task as well.

Dudley didn't need to hear more about potions and cauldrons past the _true_ story of Harry's parents. Harry's dad wasn't just a hero cop, he was a _magic warrior _who fought _dark lords_. He was like _Obi-Wan Kenobi _with a wand instead of a lightsaber. But even more awesome 'cause its real life. That means Harry should be like Luke Skywalker, _right?_ But Harry wasn't a Luke Skywalker. He was short, and thin, and the more time passed the more time Harry spent reading. Ever since learning about magic,if Harry didn't have his nose in some book on potions or science with Dudley's mom he was reading fantasy books about magic, stories like Narnia and Lord of the Rings. It was just too bad that Harry was more interested in what characters like Gandalf and the White Witch did than Aragorn or Prince Caspian. But Harry had still saved Dudley's mom. Harry had protected their family.

Maybe Harry was trying to be more like The Doctor than a Jedi? Dudley didn't think he could do that. But, he _could still_ protect his family. He could protect other people too.

Harry was learning the stuff his mom learned. Just a few months after learning about magic he was already talking avidly about being a healer like she had wanted to be, though Harry wanted to be able to take care of Vernon and Petunia too. If that was the case, then Dudley could take something from Harry's parents' story as well. He would protect people like Harry wanted to. But he'd do it his way, like a warrior protecting his friends and family. Like James Potter did, only Dudley would have Harry there to make him better after, and sadly Dudley wouldn't have a magic wand. Harry's dad was apparently the top scorer on his school sports team before becoming an "Auror" (which Dudley knew was magic-speak for "Jedi Knight"), so that's where he would begin too.

It started with an interest in exercise, which his mom was all too happy to encourage. Dudley was working towards being truly pudgy, even at eight, but picking up youth football with Harry quickly leaned up his baby fat. His dad had tried to suggest rugby, but between Petunia's indignation and Dudley wanting to play a sport _with _Harry, he relented. Though he wasn't soft anymore, he was still big, and Dudley used his size and strength to play a mean center-back. Harry, being smaller, was easy to bully around on the field, but when he got the ball away from the crowd he was _fast. _Even when he had to dribble through a team though, it was like he had a sixth sense for dodging the worst trouble.

A little after Dudley's ninth birthday he asked to learn karate, he told his parents he wanted to be like the Karate Kid. His mom was less thrilled with that than football, though Vernon eventually got her to relent by pointing out the extra time Harry gets with her studying Lily's things meant Dudley should get to do something special he wants to do, too.

Dudley was clumsy when he started but with a little bit of work and a heavy serving of the kind of dedication that only comes from almost losing your mom, he improved quickly. He was never the fastest kid in his class, but when he got someone in a hold while sparring there was no escaping. Dudley's parents didn't know if all the dark lord's "Death Eaters" had been caught, but Dudley would make sure he could protect his family if they weren't and ever came calling.

Over the couple years since Petunia had told the boys about wizards and dark lords, Dudley had also gathered some friends. He and Piers Polkiss had gotten some of the other bigger kids in their school, though no one was as big as Dudley, and they'd formed a little friend-group. Dudley's gang would tell off bullies who picked on weaker kids in the schoolyard, mostly upper years who thought they'd be bigger than everyone; and helping the victims get to teachers for help. Those who pushed too far or operated outside of school found out Dudley wasn't just talk, though his mom never found out about it. Most kids didn't want to admit to being taken down by someone younger than them.

Meanwhile Harry, with his newfound attention to reading and homework, became a prime target for those bullies. It didn't take long for many of the more academic kids or shyer kids in the school to congregate around him during after-school times when an upper year might be looking to supplement their allowance. This included Piers' little sister Tina, who started getting picked on when she began sitting with Harry in the library. Where Harry and Tina, were, Dudley's gang was not far behind. This helped Dudley and his friends too, as Harry's friends were more than happy to help them with homework and studying.

The two groups began interacting on purpose more often, and soon became basically one. Dudley's friends also helped get the others to play sports and walk around town with them. After a couple years the two groups were thick-as-thieves, though they still retained their original styles for the most part. They were definitely an interesting sight walking into the theatre, over a dozen strong, for tickets to _Back to the Future: Part 2_: most nice looking children with respectable clothes, with some much bigger kids who had a "street hoodlum" look going for them. They would have been intimidating if they weren't talking and laughing with the others good-naturedly.

While good science fiction would still hold a special place in their hearts; Dudley and Harry's favorite new family game was 'real magic or fake', where they would watch movies about magic or monsters and guess what was based on real magic someone had seen by accident and what was totally from the writer's mind. There was no real way to score it unless it was a plant or potion since they didn't have any of Lily's books on other classes, but it led to quite a bit of good natured debate. Dudley found himself wanting the monsters from every story to be real, and bigger than in cinema. Harry, meanwhile, kept a private list of fictional 'elixir of life' ideas to look up when get got to Hogwarts.

But despite Harry Potter knowing about magic and learning from his mom's books, he and his aunt still couldn't find Diagon Alley; not even when they'd taken the snake he found in the garden, which he'd named 'Najash'. Harry had heard the name at children's studies at the church Aunt Petunia sometimes made them attend.


	3. Chapter 2: A Christmas Meeting

Chapter 2: A Most Auspicious Christmas Meeting

**25 December, 1990**

Vernon and Petunia relaxed and smiled as they drank their tea and watched the boys take turns playing Mario on the new Nintendo game system they'd gotten that morning for Christmas. Najash was resting on Harry's shoulder and hissing what Petunia assumed was advice into his ear while Dudley cheered him on. It didn't help, as Mario fell off a ledge and Harry handed the controller to Dudley while grumbling at the snake about 'shoulder-seat' drivers.

Petunia was quite shocked last year when Vernon decided that the little snake had proved he could behave and allowed Harry to bring it out in the house as long as there was no company coming. She had reached an understanding with it a while back herself, hard not to after it saves your life twice (she still shuddered every time she remembered that black viper flying at her face from the fig bush). She also couldn't ignore the fact that her garden did better with the brightly coloured serpent slithering among her plants; and she hadn't seen any kind of pest besides weeds since Harry took in the thing, though she hated how the snake sometimes hid among her roses. She could also definitely do without it getting any bigger, at almost two feet long it was approaching the limit of her ability to not scream when it startled her on her hands and knees out back.

"Petunia did you hear me?" Vernon asked, leaning over and tapping her shoulder from his chair.

"I'm sorry Vernon, I'm afraid I was just thinking."

"Anything I should be worried about?" He set his empty teacup on the table.

She glanced at him, he was starting to get a double chin again, "Hmm? Oh, no dear, just my garden, and that I think you need to start staying a little longer at the gym. What were you saying while I was distracted?" She smirked and took another sip of her tea only to discover it wasn't hot anymore.

"I got a call from the chief yesterday about that new series of drills the company is set to get started on. Apparently the representative for one of the biggest prospective clients got some kind of foreign illness just before Christmas Hols. Well the man standing in for him works with his wife at their practice together, and they asked the office if there was a representative for Grunning's that would be okay with them bringing their child with them. The contract is big enough that the department said 'fine'."

"Problem is, the chief lives alone and didn't want to try and find a way to entertain the girl on short notice, so I volunteered. I told the chief I had two well-mannered kids, so we wouldn't mind an extra child at dinner, and they could play games while we talked business." Petunia eyed him with a look that said, 'what's the catch?', "Unfortunately, they want to meet this friday, before the New Year."

"You want me to get this house ready to host a business guest three days after Christmas, no problem. But your sister and her mutt are coming over tomorrow and staying the night Vernon… The last time we needed to get most of the downstairs carpet shampooed." Petunia sighed resignedly and said, "I"ll get the boys to help me set up the garage for Ripper, don't give me that look… Marge will just have to accept that. Even she can appreciate how important a business call like this is can't she? If it's as important as you were saying before you might finally get a promotion if you finish this. We don't want the house smelling of dog."

Petunia still had issues with Marge. The woman hadn't taken to the corrected (non magical) version of Harry's parents very well since she felt it was just Petunia covering up for her 'useless sister', and the giant woman almost started a fight with _both_ the boys when she insisted that James and Lily were drunks and Petunia was just hiding her family's shame.

Vernon stating that he'd been allowed to see "confidential documents" that proved the story beyond question had the woman leave the house red faced and sputtering two days before her planned vacation ended, bulldog in tow. She only came around for holidays now, Vernon insisted that she be welcomed during those times and Petunia was willing to give him his 'normal side of the family'.

"We shouldn't tear the boys from their new toys on Christmas Day, though. This is a time for fun." As she said this Dudley pulled out a box of Legos, meanwhile Harry was hissing at Najash while apparently reading the list of elements and chemicals in the high school chemistry set Santa had left him.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Harry could barely stand being around Aunt Marge. The overweight woman seemed to blame _him_ for her not knowing that his parents were amazing people, and she took every opportunity to take it out on him. More than once during past visits her dog, Ripper, had bitten him and she'd played it off as the great beast being 'overly friendly'. When she had first jokingly told Vernon and Petunia a couple years ago that Ripper was trained to chase the local kids off her property back home she had to spend an hour explaining that the 'poor dearie' was just too 'emotional to be left alone', and 'of course he wouldn't _attack_ my family in their own house' before they let her bring the dog again. While it was never directly addressed, Marge didn't really consider Harry to be her family.

At least this time the dog wouldn't be an issue, it always put Najash on edge while inside the house. Harry and Dudley had cleaned up the garage the night before, moving any tools or stray things off the floor that Ripper could have messed up and propping open the door to the back yard.

It didn't matter, Ripper got into the house from the garage entrance no less than three times the first day, always dirty from the access to the garden. Each time the dog spread dirt and mud around the house as it searched for Harry and tried to either bite him or knock him down. Each time Marge insisted that Harry hadn't paid enough attention on his way back in from putting out some water, and that Ripper was rightly punishing him for being unobservant.

She also spent an awful lot of effort bringing up how Christmas was a time for _close families_, that _mothers _and _fathers _and _sons_ could spend good, quality time together into every conversation she could. Usually while giving Dudley another gift to unwrap. She only ever gave Harry a card with a ten pound note in it. He was able to soldier on by reminding himself repeatedly that she was only there for the one night.

When Harry went to bed that night, Najash noticed the bite marks, and the bruise where he'd been 'accidentally' knocked into the kitchen counter. It took fifteen minutes to convince the irate snake that it wouldn't do to strangle the mutt before Harry could go to (restless) sleep. Najash slept curled up under small, tasseled pillow that Harry had found in a secondhand store and placed on the bed by his own pillow, and Harry heard him hissing threats at canines as he dreamed.

Dudley found his Aunt Marge to be a little bit creepy. He understood, at least on some level, that it wasn't necessarily _wrong_ for her to favor him over Harry like his parents wouldn't. After all, Harry wasn't actually related to Marge in any real way; and Dudley's parents _had_ lied to her about Harry's parents. But that wasn't his fault at all, it was the Headmaster's for dumping Harry on their porch with no support and cutting mum off from magic (though Dudley couldn't tell Marge this), and definitely didn't earn Harry the kind of treatment his Aunt dealt to him.

Dudley was often at a loss because his parents tended to just accept it when she was around. His mum had told him that Marge was Vernon's 'island of normalcy' where all the 'strangeness' of magic disappears for a little while, and he needs that from time to time. Harry seemed to accept it with minimal griping, and any punishment he might have received because of her ended as soon as she left, so Dudley went along with it and played the spoiled nephew for his only living aunt. The third time Ripper got out into the house though, with the blame being put on Harry, Dudley began to get suspicious, and watched when his aunt put the dog back into the garage.

"Good boy Ripper, show that interloper that his bad blood isn't welcome in _my_ family. Won't get many more chances with him going off to that boarding school next autumn. Useless son of a useless rich boy if I've ever seen one." Dudley was appalled. His aunt seemed to be training this dog to attack Harry, it even sought him out as soon as it came inside!. How had his parents not noticed this before? Were they oblivious, or letting it happen? There was nothing really that Dudley could do that night so he set his alarm clock for six forty-five, to make sure he got up around the same time Harry always did, the next morning and mentally prepared himself for tomorrow.

"Boy, go give Ripper his breakfast and water! I don't want us to have to wait for you to sit down for breakfast once Dudders comes down."

"Yes Aunt Marge." Harry showed his Aunt Petunia that the water was on the stove to boil and headed to the backyard. He had decided it would be easier to keep Ripper outside if he just didn't open the garage door at all, so he planned to go out to the garden and enter the garage from the back.

"Wait up," Dudley said quietly as Harry was letting himself out the back, "Let me do it. Ripper won't bite me."

"Marge will yell if she finds out I let you do a chore she told me to do. It'll be alright Dudley, she's leaving this afternoon."

"No, it's not alright. At least let me go with you, I'll hold Ripper and you put out his food."

"Alright Big D, just don't let him hurt _you _if he tries to go after me. God I can't wait for them to leave, Najash kept me up half the night." At Dudley's questioning look he continued, "He was apparently dreaming about strangling dogs…" Harry looked a little worried at his pet's overprotectiveness, "I kept waking up when he'd get louder in his sleep."

Dudley just laughed at him, "Sometimes I wish I had magic and could talk to snakes, but then you remind me it's not always great." He smiled and opened the door to the garage.

As soon as the door opened Ripper barked and moved to charge but paused, confused, when he saw Dudley standing in front of his target. The dog lowered his front and glared at Dudley, a low growl rumbling in his throat as he waited for Dudley to move so he could attack the threat. He was exceptionally surprised when, instead of moving aside, the boy knelt down and grabbed the old bulldog in a hug. Ripper could smell the boy restraining him. He smelled like his owner, like family, though not as much as the big man inside.

Harry went to walk around Dudley and fix up the dog's breakfast, but Ripper pulled against the boy to attack his cousin and Dudley said, "Wait." Ripper watched, teeth bared, as Dudley convinced Harry to slowly stoop down and hold out his hand for the dog to sniff. The dog growled and strained against the one holding him, but couldn't reach Harry. _Not family_ the dog tried to stress to Dudley to no avail. Then Ripper smelled Harry and whined in confusion. _Not family?_ But family of the one holding him? Ripper's growls stopped as he glared at Harry in confusion.

Then Dudley began scratching Ripper's back. Pack-leader never did something like that for Ripper, she would praise him and give him treats. But Dudley was on the floor of the garage with the old bulldog, who had now rolled over so that he could get his belly rubbed. When Harry joined the two on the floor and tentatively began scratching the dog's chest, Ripper's tongue fell out of his mouth and he broke into a big grin causing Harry to laugh and continue showering the pooch in affection with his cousin.

"What the devil is going on here? What are you doing to my poor Ripper? Get off him!" Marge had decided Harry must have been doing something to her dog and come to investigate, finding the door still locked from the inside further annoyed her. "Dudley, get away from there before you get hurt, you know poor Ripper has a little problem with your cousin. You shouldn't get between them dear."

Marge crossed the gap from the door to where the boys lay on the floor as she spoke, "And _YOU_!" she hissed at Harry, "I told _you_ to feed my baby boy here and what do I find you doing? Rutting around like _you're _the animal!" She made to kick at Harry as he tried to get up, only to trip as Ripper _growled at her_ and moved between her and the now cowering boy.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING MARGE?" Petunia's shouted angrily from the door to the kitchen as Vernon went to help his sister up.

"I told you I spent months training Ripper! I came in here to find that _boy _of yours trying to undo all my work training my prize winning dog with his freakishness, and leading poor little Dudders into temptation too! Like a snake in human clothes, the boy is! And don't think I don't remember the freakishness around that boy when he was younger! Doors rattling, lights flickering! Bringing that boy into your house turned it into a horror show for _years_!" Marge began ranting before she'd even finished standing back up.

"No mom!" Dudley shouted before the woman could get much further on her roll. The last time something had set her off this badly, Harry had been left crying upstairs and Vernon had escorted his sister to her car 'until she's back to her center'; and Dudley wasn't going to let things continue like this without confronting how Marge treated his cousin.

Ignoring all of Marge's comments about Harry's freakishness, Dudley pressed on, "She trains Ripper to be mean to Harry! I heard her last night, she was calling him a good boy for 'showing the interloper he doesn't belong'. I was just showing Ripper that Harry wasn't bad, so Ripper didn't need to bark at him and bite him. It wasn't hard, either, I had him smell Harry while I held him down and then he was okay with it." Dudley frowned and looked at his cousin, "I wish I'd done this sooner, Harry, you shouldn't have had to deal with this for so long."

Petunia glowered from the doorway at Vernon, "I told you a couple years ago that that dog was too aggressive towards Harry to be _normal_." She stressed the word. "Favoritism was one thing, but I won't accept actual persecution!"

Vernon looked at his sister, gaping like a fish as she turned newer and more interesting shades of red, and finally realized that the idea of normalcy he'd always tried to believe in for his family was a sham. They may not be _magical, _but _normal_ wasn't breeding bulldogs and never leaving your home except on holidays. _Normal_ wasn't teaching those dogs to specifically bite children, then sending the biggest one after your nephew. It shouldn't matter how _strange _that nephew is, he's still just a boy! _Normal_… wasn't just attacking anything you didn't understand.

Vernon Dursley, his wife, Dudley… Harry… _they_ were normal. They were all different, got along differently, but they didn't persecute each other over it; and they didn't lash out at the things that made them different from each other. Petunia had opened his eyes in '81 to how accepting the odd and different could make life better. _That _was normal.

"Margery… I think it's time for you to go." Vernon said quietly, "Petunia is right. I can't excuse you training an animal to be aggressive towards my nephew, especially after we specifically asked you if your 'prize winning dog' would cause issues with our boys."

"The boy is a _freak_ Vernon! Just like his useless parents!"

"ENOUGH!" Vernon shouted her down, "I don't care whether you believe the truth about his parents or not Margery. But none of that changes the fact that Harry is still my _nephew_, and that when we took him in he was an _orphan_. What kind of woman can you be that you can hate a boy who has lost his parents? No, Margery, you need to leave."

That night, while the boys were putting the garage back together, Vernon made the most depressing phone call he had had to make since telling his sister that their parents had died in the hospital years ago. The Animal Control officer assured him he'd be at Margery Dursley's house the next morning to investigate.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

_Ding, Dong, _the doorbell rang shortly after five, prompting a mad dash up the stairs as Dudley still wasn't wearing the button-down shirt his mom had gotten out for him. Vernon's clients, apparently dentists, wanted to get started early just in case the meeting ran late since their daughter would be there. Petunia wasn't exactly sure what could possibly take so long in a negotiation about _drills_, but she could respect that there were parts of his job she just would never understand.

"Harry dear, make sure that the door to your room is closed and Najash is in there please. It wouldn't do to scare their daughter, poor Vernon has been fretting about this sale in private since Christmas Eve." Petunia smiled when Harry nodded and indicated he already had. He was wearing the green shirt she'd gotten him for Christmas that brought out his eyes, "Alright then, I'll go answer the door, please get the tea ready and join us in the family room when you're done."

"Yes Aunt Petunia."

"Yes, may I help you sir?" Petunia asked with a little uncertainty after she opened the front door, she was expecting a couple and their daughter, not just a man. Her fears were dispelled when she heard a woman's voice admonishing someone to hurry.

"Yes ma'am. You are Mrs. Petunia Dursley I presume? I'm sorry to startle you, I told my daughter to leave her books at home, but she managed to sneak one into the car. My wife is currently trying to tear her away from it."

"Oh, that's no problem at all, Doctor" Petunia said as the other two, both bushy, frizzy brunettes, began walking up the path from the driveway. _I need to stop looking at others' hair like that_, she thought to herself, _at least until I can manage my own again._

Petunia's hair was a stringy mess that held no shape without magical help; she didn't even have her sister's vibrant colour, hers was a muted red that was basically brown. All she could do with it reliably was tie it into a simple ponytail to keep it out of the way. She never tried shortening it much, though, she always felt that that was the same as giving up.

Once the two ladies had gotten to the door Petunia showed them inside and to the family room, where she found Dudley frantically trying to figure out how to change the setting on the telly from his game back to the news. His shirt wasn't tucked in and Petunia could see from here that it was buttoned wrong, but at least he'd put the right one on. Sometimes she worried Dudley didn't care about his appearance enough.

"Mr. Dursley," the Doctor began, stepping forward to shake the large man's hand, "Thank you for welcoming my family into your home. This is my wife, Emma, and that is our daughter, Hermione. I am Daniel Granger, we spoke over the phone, it's a pleasure to finally meet you face to face." As he spoke he gestured to each member of his family, both smiling and saying 'hello' as he did.

"Quite, I am Vernon Dursley, this here," Indicating Petunia, "is my devoted wife Petunia, and that's our boy on the floor figuring out how to fix the telly. Dudley, stand up for a moment and say 'hello' son." Dudley stood up and said hello as Harry came in and placed a tray with two pots of tea and seven cups on the table in front of the couch. Vernon continued introductions once Harry had straightened back up, "And this, here, is my nephew Ha-"

"Oh my god you're Harry Potter!" The girl shrieked as she stared at Harry, her eye darting back and forth from his scar to his glasses and back again.

"Now Hermione! You know you can't just inter-"

"But _daddy_, he's _Harry Potter_, he _has_ to be! He has the scar… and his glasses look just like that picture of James Potter. I was just reading about him in _Modern Magical History_ in the car! He's also in _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts!_" Hermione was practically vibrating in place she was so excited. How often do you read about someone and _immediately meet that person in real life!?_ "Oh my-"

"_Hermione! _You know that professor lady said you can't _talk_ abo-"

Daniel Granger stopped short, his hosts demeanor had completely changed. Petunia was ghostly pale as she backed up while holding Dudley's shoulder with a vice grip, and he noted that Vernon had somehow slid over to the fireplace and was surreptitiously reaching for a fire-poker. _What the bloody hell, is this some kind of set-up? Are these 'magicals' going to _kidnap _her or something after all?_

"I'm in a book?" Harry asked brightly, his back to his family's disturbing reactions. It was the first thing he had said since walking into the room, attracting all attention back to him as he unconsciously pushed his hair away, giving an even better view of his scar.

_It's really him!_ Hermione began nodding excitedly.

"So… does that mean you're a witch?" Harry asked, Hermione kept nodding her head, her smile getting even bigger. Petunia glanced at Vernon and shook her head, Vernon stepped away from the fire-poker.

_I'm talking to Harry Potter! _Hermione thought giddily to herself.

"Hi, I'm Harry Potter, though…ha ha… I guess you already knew that." Harry chuckled as he held out his hand. Hermione took it mechanically but with the wrong hand, her head still nodding rapidly. Harry took pity on the girl and reached out with his other hand to stop her nodding, when he plopped it on top of her head she let out a squeak and blushed.

Dudley snorted at Hermione's reaction, and the tension broke. Dan and Emma chuckled as the two Dursleys held each other up laughing at poor Hermione as her face got redder and redder.

"I apologize if I had you worried, Dr. Granger." Vernon stepped forward, both hands in front of him and clearly empty, "As you can tell, Harry is somewhat famous in the magical world. Last we have heard, some of the lot that killed his parents are still at-large as well. We've been raising him here, away from all that, to protect him. Though he's excited to be going to Hogwarts next fall. If memory serves, your daughter is eleven, so does that mean she's already going?"

"Oh no, apparently you have to turn eleven _before_ the school year starts, no exceptions. Our Hermione was born _mid_-September, so we just got a 'your daughter is a witch, you can't tell anyone about it, see you in half-a-year' meeting with a professor from the school, a 'Mcgonagall' woman." Dr. Granger chuckled again at the memory.

"The woman definitely looked the part," he continued, "robes like the wicked witch from Oz and turning into a cat to boot. We went to their magic shopping district in London before Christmas after asking where it was and let our girl buy some of her school books, as well as some books on magic history so we can learn about this world she's getting dragged into. Thankfully, when we mailed the school for suggestions on reference material they were happy to give us a list."

Petunia only heard one thing in the man's explanation, "You can go to Diagon Alley?" Her voice was shaky, _it couldn't be true, it was _too good_ to be true, seven months early?_ "You've been there yourselves, you know where it is?"

"Of course, um. Pardon my asking, but you… don't? I mean, you clearly know about magic and all… and I think remember that Harry Potter's mother was muggleborn like Hermione, so you must be _her _family. Did you never go with your sister?" Dan asked.

"Because the Headmaster is dumb and-" Harry had been talking quietly to Hermione, but was apparently paying enough attention to the adult's conversation to offer his two pence where it wasn't needed.

"Harry, please. We don't _know_ that." Petunia sighed, "When Harry was left with us, the Headmaster of Hogwarts placed some kind of magic shield on our house that would keep the magical world away. Unfortunately, he didn't _ask_ ahead of time. We were cut off from the magical world even though we still did business there from time to time. I remember exactly where Diagon Alley is _supposed _to be, but even when I go with Harry I just can't find it."

She frowned as she looked down at Hermione Granger, _I wonder if they know they're still holding hands?_ she thought idly, "I can only assume that the Headmaster's shields only kept out adult magical people, so your daughter wasn't stopped. Or it might have already fallen down, since he said it would when Harry went to Hogwarts. We haven't tried finding Diagon in about a year-and-a-half."

"Actually," Mrs. Granger interjected, "When we pulled onto your driveway she said she felt some kind of electric tingle that reminded her of walking into and out of stores in Diagon Alley. Not to sound rude, but she dismissed it because of how… ordinary everything here looks. So these 'shields' are probably still there and it's the first answer." Petunia nodded.

"Aunt Petunia, Mrs. Granger, can I take Hermione upstairs and show her the potions lab?" Harry asked before turning to his aunt, "When they went to Diagon Alley they looked around but they only went _inside_ the bookstore."

Petunia glanced at Mrs. Granger, who gave her a meaningful look, Hermione bouncing up-and-down and silently pleading the whole time, before nodding and saying, "That's okay with me as long as your aunt is okay with it… and you leave the door open so I can hear you from down here."

Petunia chuckled at that, "Oh, Emma you wound me. I would have expected nothing less from either of my boys." With that she made a shoo-ing motion with her hands and the two magicals were off, hand-in-hand. "Dudley, maybe you should join them. Make sure they don't accidentally set the house on fire or something, _hmm? _You know your cousin _does things_ when he gets excited. I expect miss Granger might have similar troubles when her emotions are high." Dudley nodded, as did Emma, "And remind them that dinner will be ready in forty-five minutes."

"We aren't going to play Scrabble tonight, are we." Dudley asked as he turned to go.

"Unless you want to lose to magical plant names again, I wouldn't think so." His mum joked back.

Vernon watched the scene with relief, he was truly worried he was about to have to fight these people to defend his family; and that would almost _certainly_ get him fired from Grunning's as well, assuming he wasn't turned into a frog or lizard by dark wizards first. Then he remembered something everyone else had forgotten in the sudden stress and excitement!

"Boy, you warn her before you open that door! Don't go scaring that poor lass just minutes after you've met her!" Vernon's face flushed as he realized how disastrous that could be.

"Is there something we should be concerned about?" Mr. Granger asked, worried at Vernon's tone.

"Oh, the boy's got a pet snake," He tried placating the father, "he can talk to it. I didn't want the snake to startle her and get her to screaming. Especially with the misunderstanding _we_ just had."

"Ah. Quite… it's… it's not venomous is it? I mean, I know he's a wizard but…damn this feels complicated.".

"No, its some American snake. Actually eats poisonous ones if you can believe it. It killed an adder that had gotten into Petunia's garden last summer and struck at her. Don't worry about asking questions like that here. We'll answer if we can, but as we said, we haven't had contact with that world for a little over nine years now. You aren't about to offend us by asking a question about that part of our lives."

"Well, I guess Hermione will need to adjust to magic life at some point, and from what I understand snakes are pretty important to magicals. I just can't remember the specifics."

"This one's saved my wife's life twice now. Once from that viper, and once when she was really sick. The thing showed Harry and I how to heal her with the last of her old potions things from before Harry lived with us, so I'd say it's pretty alright. Harry wants to be a healer like his mum, and he says the snake's for helping him at it."

Petunia smiled at her husband's easy acceptance of the snake. His sister's breakdown was still bothering him a little, and it heartened her to know her husband didn't seem to blame Harry in the slightest for Margery.

"I'm sorry to change subjects on you, but I'm sure that at the very least the two of you should be talking about drills and dentistry in some capacity." Petunia stepped into the conversation, "So, if everyone agrees, could we split in two? Emma, I'd love to talk with you about Diagon, and the magical world as far as I remember it. If you've only been into the book store then I could likely answer some questions about how us normal people deal with the magical world, but Vernon needs to be able to report to his boss that this meeting is… 'productive'..."

Emma Granger frowned, she and Dan did everything business-related together. But this was a chance to make a connection with someone that potentially had a foot in both their world _and_ this new one that Hermione had found herself a part of.

"I think that would be for the best Petunia. Dan? Can I leave you and Mr. Dursley to this?" Normally Emma hated relegating to her husband, she considered herself the better with finances as well. But the Dursley family seemed like a more traditional bunch, the man worked and the woman watched the house and kids.

"Of course dear, we'll be right here if you need us. That wonderful smell coming from the kitchen will keep us to task until dinner."

As soon as she had closed the kitchen door behind her Emma turned and asked, "Something was nagging me when you were talking about how the Headmaster had left Harry with you. You said he put up those shields without asking you… did he ask you about _Harry?_"

Petunia had hoped to ease into that question, "He did not. But I am so thankful that Harry has been in our lives. Forgetting that he literally saved my life when I accidentally poisoned myself a couple years ago, Harry has brought nothing but joy to this house… That being said," Petunia scrunched up her face, "Dumbledore left a note with Harry when he left him on our doorstep. Vernon seems to think that Dumbledore resented Harry for winning the war."

At Emma's blank looks she elaborated, "Harry is famous because ten years ago the magical world was at the height of a civil war. Halloween 1981 the leader of the rebel army attacked my sister and her husband in their home. Both of them died, but apparently so did the monster that killed them. Only Harry survived, and the newspaper from the next night, the last bit of news I was able to get from that world by the way, was calling Harry the savior of the magical world for 'vanquishing You-Know-Who at only one year old'. They had even given him a moniker designed to mock the dead dark lord's, they called him The-Boy-Who-Lived."

"You-Know-Who?"

"The rebel leader in the war. The newspaper never printed his real name, always some stupid hyphenated moniker like that one. I remember my sister mentioning him while she was still going to school. It was something french that ended in 'Mort'. I couldn't remember anything else, so that's what we call him in this house. Not some overly-spooky media-made moniker."

"It seems like you have a rather interesting family history" Emma Granger said with a bemused smile.

"... Yes… and you have no _idea_ how good it feels to be able to talk about it with someone!" Petunia replied.

"Well, I'd love to hear anything you have to say about the magical world. My trip to Diagon Alley wasn't the best experience. It seemed like half the people we met were cordial, but treated us like children, and the other half didn't think we deserved to be in the same _space_ as them." Emma's smile died as she remembered how some of the people they'd encountered in the Alley seemed to treat them as diseased or something.

"Then it sounds like Harry's parents killing Mort didn't actually cause their side to win the civil war." Petunia replied with distaste in her mouth.

"Oh? Do tell…"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Hermione Granger had spent her entire life being made fun of for being 'too smart.' When she was in primary school she'd just been ignored by the other kids, who were more interested in playing and goofing off than reading. But now that she was in secondary, it was becoming much more harsh and pronounced, and she was sent home crying half a dozen times before her eleventh birthday.

That birthday Hermione learned that she wasn't just different, she was _special._ A woman came to her family's home and told her that she was _magical, _a witch. Next year, she'd leave these mean bullies behind and she'd get to learn _magic_ with other people like her. She was sure it would be better if she just made it through _this _one_ last year._

The following Christmas, her parents surprised her with a trip to the magical shopping district, Diagon Alley. She was only allowed to go into the bookstore Professor Mcgonagall had recommended, _Flourish and Blott's, _but Hermione had never considered that a punishment and wasn't about to start now. She had picked out all the textbooks that were on the current year's list of required reading; and her parents had grabbed a few books on magical history, mostly modern history.

Her parents weren't as thrilled as she was, but Hermione was sure that it was just because they couldn't _feel _it. She had known all her life that something was _missing_ from her, and she just couldn't figure it out. She felt it a bit whenever strange thing happened around her, like spilled drinks sliding off of homework without damaging them, or books that she was looking for springing off of shelves at her. She'd thought she could find it by studying and reading science books, but she understood now. It was magic that her life was lacking, and that wouldn't be the case for much longer.

She was currently reading _Modern Magical History_, learning about the magical war that ended nine years ago on Halloween. It was hard to really believe the story the way the book presented it, how does a one year old, even a wizard, defeat the most powerful dark lord in history without leaving a trace? That's silly. One thing both this book and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_, which she'd already finished, agreed on was that Harry Potter's mother was the smartest witch in living memory. She'd invented spells while she was still in school for crying out loud! Hermione was pretty sure that Mrs. Potter had created a spell to protect her son, and that was what saved Harry, or maybe Mr. Potter had weakened You-Know-Who enough that he messed up his spell. It just made more sense than a baby killing an evil, adult wizard.

Her mother waited on her to finish the chapter she was reading when they arrived at the Dursleys' house. Apparently both books _also_ agreed that Chief Warlock and Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, had rescued Harry from the ruins of his home and placed him somewhere safe until he was ready for Hogwarts. _Since I didn't get to go this year, does that mean we might be in the same class?_

Hermione said 'Hello' to the family when she was supposed to, and smiled politely. The boy reminded her a lot of some of the worse bullies back in school, so she had to fight to keep a smile on her face when 'Dudley' was introduced. By the time the second boy had set the tea tray down on the counter she was ready to tune out the entire night, it was becoming harder for her to care about the 'regular' world when she was supposed to be getting ready to enter the 'magical' one.

Then, the messy black-haired boy looked up and she couldn't help herself as she shrieked, "Oh my god, you're Harry Potter!"

Hermione Granger was completely in a daze, Harry said some things to her, and she responded (she hoped accurately, or at least with an answer relevant to the question). When his hand dropped down on her head she realized she'd been nodding rapidly (and stupidly) for almost thirty seconds and let out a _rather_ embarrassing 'squeak.' Her blush continued to deepen as she tried to go over just what exactly she'd said to Harry Potter. While the adults began to diffuse the situation that seemed to have almost happened Hermione spoke her first conscious words to Harry Potter.

"I'msorryifyouhearthisalotbutyourmumismyHero!" Hermione whispered rapidly, unable to speak louder, and thoroughly frightened that if she slowed down she'd clam up, she did her best to speak more intelligibly, "The only store we went in at the magic alley was the bookstore, and almost all the books said she was brilliant! IhopeIcanbelikeher!" She winced as she finished her statement, worried that she might have offended the boy still holding her hand.

"She's my Hero too." he returned reverently, "I have some of her books and stuff, do you want to see?"

Hermione's glowing smile was all the answer he needed.

"What did your uncle mean, 'warn me'?" Hermione asked as they reached the top of the stairs.

"Yeah dude, that could've been _super_ awkward." Dudley said, rushing up behind them.

"OH! Sorry Hermione, I have a potions set that my aunt used before Dumbledore shut us out of the magical world in my room… But… I also have my pet in there…"

"Okaaaaay…" the girl prompted.

"He's a snake." At Hermione's shocked look he continued, "He's not dangerous or anything, and he likes my mum too. He said he'd help me become a healer like she wanted to be. He's even saved my Aunt Petunia _twice_ now."

Hermione frowned, "Okay, but can you like… make sure he's on the other side of the room when I first walk in. Give me a chance to get used to him?" Harry smiled and went into the room to do exactly that, calling for the two to come in once he had Najash wrapped around his wrist. Hermione counted the seconds, realizing for the first time that Harry had been holding her hand since she'd first given it to him downstairs.

"Our parents _definitely _saw that by the way." Dudley muttered as he walked by Hermione, her eyes still locked on the hand Harry had just released.


	4. Chapter 3: Ms Peony Acacia

Ms. Peony Acacia

**19 Jan, 1991**

Petunia held tightly to Harry and Hermione's arms as they strode down Diagon Alley on their way to the shining white facade of Gringotts Bank. Last week she, the Grangers, and Harry had come out and performed some experiments on finding the Alley. They'd found that once Hermione had guided both Petunia, and Harry, to the door of the Leaky Cauldron they could find it again without assistance. The group agreed to wait a week and see if Dumbledore contacted the Dursleys about it before risking going into the Alley itself.

The Dursleys and Grangers had spent each of the last three weekends together after Harry, Dudley, and Hermione hit off so well that first night. The Dursleys were happy to know they'd have an extra connection to Harry in the magical world that would keep him grounded, and the Grangers were ecstatic to see their daughter coming out of her shell that first weekend get-together, and making friends. They were even more pleased the second weekend, when Dudley and Harry had a large group of other friends come around as well and they all included Hermione in not only their study session but also the snowball fight that broke out once most of the kids had grown tired of books.

In just three weeks, Hermione had gone from 'the new girl' to Harry's new best friend. They had talked on the phone after dark several times, Hermione usually asking Harry to compare something she'd read to his mother's notes, while Harry suggested fantasy novels he thought were closer to real than most. She had avoided fantasy all her life, especially after learning magic was real, since it seemed silly to read about fake magic, but Harry and Dudley explaining their game 'real magic or fake' had her going back behind them offering new opinions. She was even looking into healing at Harry's urging, considering it a great way to both respect her parents and also follow after her new idol, Lily Potter.

After no issues had cropped up despite loitering directly outside the Leaky Cauldron for half an hour the week before, the Grangers had agreed to let their daughter accompany Harry and his aunt when they went, with Harry covering his scar with makeup and wearing a hat. The two adult Grangers had a few backed up appointments due to spending the last several weekends effectively on vacation, so this seemed like a perfect situation to them.

The moment that the old barkeep, Tom, had let them through the archway (and it was so nice to see that the old man was still running the bar like he was the last time Petunia had been there), she'd had to hold tightly to both children as they immediately began pulling towards the bookstore.

"We might as well go to Gringotts first children. I can get some magical money, and then we can shop at more than just the stores that accept pounds." Petunia chided the youngsters.

The steps of Gringotts were as grand and white as ever before. Petunia nodded politely to the goblins standing guard at the entrance, then had to admonish the children not to stare. Goblins, from her memory, were a rather surly lot. Angry and impatient, but always honest if you were.

When they made it inside they found the bank relatively empty, so they were able to walk right up to a teller, who Petunia spoke to, "Greetings, teller. I am here to enquire about the status of my account with your bank. I have been away from the magical world for nine years or so, so I'm not sure if its even still functional to be honest."

The goblin looked up from his counter, most of the 'lost vaults' belonging to squibs hiding from the war had been claimed or closed in the almost-decade since the defeat of the dark lord.

"I am Teller Griphook, may I have the name of the account please?" Griphook knew to ask the question that way. Many of the 'lost vaults' had belonged to squibs or muggleborns that used fake names to hide from the Death Eaters.

"_Ms._ Peony Acacia. I'm here with my son and his good friend." Petunia had stressed the ambiguous honorific every time she'd corresponded with the bank, and secretly liked to think that it was a special code between her and the goblins. She'd even wrote the 'Ms.' with extra flourish when dealing with them by mail. It wasn't that she wanted to imply anything about Vernon, but she felt it added one more layer of mystery between herself and the persona.

Griphook dropped his pen as he stared at the humans in front of him. A woman trying to claim the second richest of the lost vaults comes into the bank with the _Potter_ _heir _in tow? Sure, his scar was covered by muggle makeup, but there was no way the boy in front of him _wasn't_ Harry Potter.

"Ms. Acacia," Griphook did his best to smile as his mind contemplated all the myriad ways his head could be adorning the front entrance if he messed this up, "If you would, please come with me into a conference room. For the first five years things were handled as had been arranged. However, since then the account has been inactive on account of your long… silence."

"Very well." Petunia gestured to both children to precede her through the booth after Griphook opened it.

"Ms. Acacia, are you sure you wish to have the young muggleborn witch with you when we meet?" Griphook hoped that she would understand the implication of singling out only one of the two as muggleborn. He couldn't come out and say that he knew who her guest really was, even if it was mostly quiet there were still other wizards in the bank.

Petunia regarded the two children; glancing at Harry's scar, barely visible, before she nodded, "I think I can _trust_ these two." Griphook nodded and led the trio through a door behind him into a hallway. Five minutes of navigating corridors later, they were in a smallish conference room with a rectangular table.

"Can I get you any refreshments?" Griphook asked as the two children took seats, the woman stood behind them protectively. _So she's familiar enough to know we aren't usually this accommodating. _"I'll need to perform a Blood Verification Ritual to confirm that you are the woman who originally used the alias 'Ms_._ Peony Acacia' to open this account. This test is important because, per magical treaty, since the vault hasn't been accessed in five years it has been rendered 'silent'. Only squib and muggle accounts are treated this way, in case you were wondering." the goblin gave a meaningful look at Harry, "If the _original_ vault owner doesn't claim it after being rendered silent, and before the ten year mark, then we are bound by treaty to turn over the contents of the vault to the Ministry of Magic."

Petunia frowned and paled considerably, and not only at the prospect of her money being seized by the government. She had been assured when she set up the account that they would only need blood again under strange circumstances, "I assume by the name that blood is required for this 'ritual'? How much are we talking about here?"

"We will need two drops of your blood to confirm your identity, it would have been three had you been fully magical." As he spoke he clicked his fingers and a gold plate with arcane looking runes inscribed on it appeared on the table right beside a small silver knife.

"Oh, well that's no problem at all I suppose." She responded while holding her hand out for the goblin and squeezing her eyes closed. The dagger stung when it pricked her hand, but as soon as two drops had spilled onto the gold plate the cut healed itself. Petunia opened her eyes to see the two drops of blood swirling around the plate, causing different runes to glow and dim. After the drops regrouped at the center and stopped moving Griphook touched the knife to the blood, then carried it over to a sheet of parchment. When the blood flowed into the parchment it began organizing into letters and words. Finally, Griphook took the finished product, nodded, and looked back to the humans in the room, clicking his fingers again to make a file appear in his hands.

"Your identity has been verified _Ms_. Peony Acacia.," Petunia smiled internally when she heard the inflection on the name, "Would you like to continue using that alias for your dealings with Gringotts Bank?" The goblin tried his best to keep the greed out of his voice.

"Yes, for now I think that would be safest, though I believe I will find myself able to frequent the Alley slightly more often these days. You can expect to see more of me in the future."

"Very well, Ma'am. Then allow me to be the first to congratulate you on reclaiming your fortune." The goblin said merrily.

"My what?" Petunia's deadpan voice drew the goblin up short, so to speak. "I know I put too much of my money into the account since I didn't know I was going to lose access, but I would hardly call my parent's estate a 'fortune'."

"Ma'am. You are the richest, independently wealthy, squib in all of Magical Britain." The goblin's brain began to run as he took in the blank stare from all three humans. "Before you went strangely silent, your vault held just shy of thirteen-thousand galleons. From what I understand looking at the file here you put a large portion of your inheritance into the bank, _during_ the height of the magical war."

"My sister married rich," Petunia interrupted, Griphook raised an eyebrow, "she insisted I have her half of our parent's estate. I put almost all of it here, since my sister said this was the safest place in Britain and I could use the account here to deal with Diagon Alley by mail."

"At that time," He nodded and continued, "The value of the Galleon was _falling_, at its lowest the conversion rate for Pounds to Galleons was ten to one. At the time of your largest deposits in late '79 the rate was twelve to one. Now, with the magical economy once again booming, the conversion rate is twenty-two to one." Griphook waited a moment, as the woman needed to sit down after that revelation

"In addition, your account was only authorized for a couple specific investments, many other non-pureblood accounts were basically fleeced dry by the ministry to help pay for war damages. But they used transaction fees and the like in the magical world only. Your stock in Muggle 'telecom' companies, and a 'computer' company in America,... Microsoft?" he slowed down and stumbled over the unfamiliar words, "made quite an impact on your bottom line. Between those dividends and interest on the account itself, your vault sits at 57,506 Galleons, plus the one-hundred, each, Sickles and Knuts you requested always be available when the vault was arranged. The timing of those companies, particularly the last one 'taking off' as they say, during that time, coupled with the rapidly rising value of the galleon in the wake of the war as business returned from overseas led to your account doing _rather _well for itself."

Petunia was stunned… she sat in the chair between the kids, staring at the goblin who'd just told her she was richer than she'd ever imagined. The money she'd lost to the magical world had increased well over ten times! It was up to Hermione to finally vocalize it.

"That's over a million pounds." She whispered.

"Indeed," the goblin responded, "You may be pleased to learn, Ms. Acacia, that with the end of the magical war, Gringotts has found reason to branch further into the Muggle world. While you're here today, we can set up an account for you with Lloyd's Banking Group that will allow you to convert and withdraw your Galleons as Pounds whenever you find yourself needing non magical funds. You would only need walk into any of their locations and inform a teller that you are there on Gringotts business. Our conversion rates are also much more favorable to an account of your _esteem_."

"Oh, that would be helpful. I wish that had been an option a decade ago," The goblin slid a sheet of parchment to her, then clicked his fingers once more, causing a quill and inkwell to appear on the table, "I had forgotten you used such… old methods… on this side." She took the quill and glanced over the terms of the Muggle Accounts Contract before signing.

"I would also like to withdraw a bit of money while we're here for shopping in the Alley before we head home. I'm dreadfully short supplied on potions ingredients these days." Petunia smiled at the inside joke.

"That will not be a problem, though… We had to move your vault to one on a lower level than you likely remember due to its increased value. We will also need to create a proper key for the new vault as well before we go. Part of the security of the mid-level vaults like yours is now is that the vault owner must physically remove Galleons from the vault if they come into the Bank in person. After all, this is the only means of withdrawal with no limit. Unfortunately, this will require two more drops of your blood."

"That makes sense… we have a bit of shopping I was looking forward to, if we could go to my vault then?" Petunia wasn't sure what _exactly_ the goblin meant by 'vault'. But she was imagining something from Indiana Jones based on her experience.

Griphook looked awkwardly between Petunia and the children without rising, _nothing ventured nothing gained_, or so he thought the human idiom went.

"Forgive me if I'm being to forward, but do you not wish to consult with Account Manager Axegut?... The Potter account manager?" He inclined his head towards Harry, "Muggle techniques of illusion will fool most wizards, but we goblins can _smell_ a disguise. I knew who he was the moment you all walked up to my till."

Griphook took a deep breathe, if this blew up in his face _now_ he was worse than dead, but something didn't seem right about this situation. How did the owner of a lost vault find herself in the company of Harry Potter? She even called the boy her son! And neither having contacted the magical world in all that time?

"Ms. Acacia, may I ask how you came to know the Potter Heir? How are you connected to young Harry Potter?" Griphook gave his best toothless smile, trying hard to show that he wasn't trying to be an enemy. "Within Gringotts, the custodianship of the Potter Estate has been in a state of confusion. Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore declared himself Harry Potter's magical guardian in 1981, but from what I understand there was supposed to be a different guardian. The Accounts Manager was furious, but the Wizengamot had the Potter will sealed to allow Dumbledore guardianship. I was wondering if you could shed some light on the situation."

Petunia looked to the children at her sides, _this conversation is starting to sound too adult for them_, "I still want to go by my alias outside _this _conversation… I am Petunia Dursley, formerly Evans, the sister of Lily Potter. I am Harry's maternal aunt and have raised him since his parents died. Now, I have another question. What is a magical guardian?"

"A magical guardian is the same as a muggle guardian. The person who acts as protector, and important-decision-maker for a minor. In the case of a young witch or wizard with one or more magical parents, the two roles are combined in the parents. The distinction only matters for those magical children who are the first in their family, such as the young miss here, or magical orphans raised by muggle family, such as Heir Potter. In those situations, the magical guardian has full decision-making power over the child in all situations that happen in the magical world; and the Muggle one has that power in the Muggle world."

"By default," Griphook continued, "all muggleborn children are the magical wards of the Headmaster of Hogwarts, also Albus Dumbledore at the moment, until they are sorted into a house. At that point, the Headmaster cedes guardianship to the student's Head of House. Though Dumbledore has relegated his default guardian status to his deputy, Minerva Mcgonagall for every child since the seventies until one special case." Griphook looked meaningfully at Harry, who squirmed under the scrutiny.

She didn't seem like she really knew what was going on here at all, but this could potentially take the knees out from under Dumbledore. After the war, the Chief Warlock had begun pushing for tighter legislation against the goblins for not helping more against Voldemort. It's not as if they could had they tried, the treaties prevented them from mobilizing above ground unless a goblin or goblin-friend was endangered. And the vaults? Gringotts had no illusions that if they had tried to penalize the vaults of those they _knew_ were death eaters they would not have the Wizengamot up in arms about mistreatment of 'upstanding citizens of the magical community'. A no-win situation if ever there was one.

That notwithstanding, It was a well kept secret from outsiders that the reports from the Acacia account prompting the goblins to move into muggle technology was the only reason the bank had remained profitable during that time. Had the _wizards _known about it they likely would have tried to make it illegal. The goblin nation owed Peony Acacia, Petunia Dursley, for showing them where muggle economics were going in time to save themselves from the wizard's self-destruction.

"If you have time, Ma'am. Could you explain the situation regarding how Heir Potter came to be in your care? Your lack of knowledge tells me that Albus Dumbledore has failed in his responsibilities to your charge. It could even be argued that _you _have performed the role of magical guardian for him for the last nine years, two-and-a-half months and qualify for the position, officially, by assumption of responsibility."

"How can _I_ qualify as his magical guardian? I'm not magical." She asked.

"I'm not sure who told you that Ma'am, but they were incomplete in their explanation, you are not a _witch_, but you _are _a squib. That was confirmed when I verified your identity. Normally that would mean that you are a person born to magical parents that is unable to perform magic yourself. But I understand your confusion, I'm not quite sure how to explain you being a squib and not a muggle, I don't think I've ever heard of a muggleborn having a _squib _sibling before. But the distinction is important! As I said, you _have_ performed the role of guardian for him since the deaths of his parents. That, coupled with the fact even though you cannot cast spells you _are _magical, means that you could apply to be his magical guardian."

Petunia wasn't sure how many more life-shattering revelations she could handle in one day, but she risked her sanity by asking two more questions, "Does the magical or muggle guardian control the family's financial accounts until Harry is of-age? And if magical… what has… what has _that man _done with my nephew's inheritance?" She couldn't help the venom in her voice, she didn't need to hear Griphook's response to her questions to know what the answers would be.

Before he could answer though, there was a knock at the door and a larger, portly goblin was let in by the guard outside. _Was there always a guard out there?_ Petunia thought to herself.

"Ms. _Acacia_, this is Accounts Manager Axegut, the primary accounts manager for the Potter accounts." Griphook stood and introduced the new goblin, "To answer your last questions before I must depart, the magical guardian has a large amount of control over family finances, but isn't allowed to take non-monetary items from the vaults, or sell land properties unless to pay off a family debt incurred before the financial regency. So only Knuts, Sickles, and Galleons could be affected for the most part."

"For your second question," the goblin went on, "you will need to speak with Accounts Manager Axegut. I'm afraid that as a mere teller, I'm not allowed to be present during discussions with a senior account executive. Please don't take my departure for rudeness. I will be waiting for you to complete your business, then I shall escort you to your vault." And with that the little goblin beat a hasty retreat, bowing to Axegut as he left.

"Ma'am, Heir Potter," the goblin bowed stiffly to each, who returned the gesture, before he sat down. He looked at Hermione, "I don't recognize you, miss," He turned to Petunia, then Harry, "Ma'am,Sir, I'm afraid I feel uncomfortable talking about Potter family finances with a stranger in the room."

"Hermione isn't a stranger, she's my best friend! We don't need to keep secrets from her! Do we Aunt Petunia?" Harry started out with fire, but when he turned to his aunt it was almost pitiful. Axegut chuckled, typical Potter male to be ruled by the females in his life.

Petunia stood up for a minute to think and Harry moved over a seat so he was beside the girl and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. She looked dismayed that she might have to wait alone, and Heir Potter's mood seemed to fall in direct proportion. When Petunia returned and indicated that there would be no secrets from Hermione today her nephew was overjoyed, the old goblin made a note in his ledger.

"Are you able to answer the question I asked to Griphook?" Petunia asked once Axegut had seemingly finished sorting his paperwork, "What has that man done to my nephew's inheritance?"

"I'm afraid that I can't answer that question _at this time_, Ms. Acacia. But Gringotts would be happy to assist you in taking the steps necessary to claim guardianship of your nephew, and thus control of his finances. I can have the paperwork ready for you in five minutes. You see, Albus Dumbledore is only Harry's magical guardian from the perspective of the ministry. The Wizengamot allowed him to declare himself such after he claimed, at the time incorrectly, that the true magical guardian was unavailable. We allowed him leeway due to the circumstances, but recognize that he doesn't have any legal right to challenge a family member."

"What does it mean that Albus is his magical guardian at all? How did that happen?"

Axegut frowned… he thought about asking the children to leave… but they looked to be drawing strength from each other. Hopefully that would be enough, "Tell me, Ma'am. How much do you know about the circumstances of your sister's death? More specifically, how much do you know about Sirius Black?"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I _beg your pardon_?" Emma's outburst caused a few of the other cafe patrons to turn and look at the pair of women, despite their secluded corner-booth, "Petunia, are you saying that once Hermione goes to that school they have _total _parental authority until she comes home?"

Petunia had offered to take Emma out on a "girl's day" the weekend before Valentines to give their husbands a chance to impress them, the kids were brewing a boil ointment from the first-year book and would be fine on their own for a little while, the dentist had no idea how important her friend's ulterior motives were.

"That's correct. According to their laws those like Hermione, magical children born to non magical people, need two official guardians. Wizards apparently don't believe muggles to be capable of understanding the '_frightfully complicated nuances of the magical world.'_" she said the last with air quotes and a sarcastically disgusted tone, "This is even more important than normal, because magical schools have higher rates of injury than regular ones. Most have a fully-licensed healer on-staff, just in case. It would be like a boarding school that had a need for a full surgical team on permanent standby or something."

"Since you told me what the Headmaster had done with your nephew's family affairs I was beginning to question if Hermione would actually be going to that school. Now that decision seems made, Dan and I are _not_ losing her to that world for nine months a year. What if something happened to her? If she got hurt? Are you saying they wouldn't even contact me?"

"According to Axegut, Hogwarts' official policy is to handle any non life-threatening issues in-house without alerting anyone outside, ostensibly to prevent panic in the magical world over the safety of their children. A magical, and only magical, guardian would have to specifically ask to be informed of lesser injuries in order to be so." Petunia made a face at the obviously backwards thinking, "In addition, if an injury _could _be life threatening the policy is to only inform the _magical _guardian of the student. Since that person is a teacher for muggleborn students, their families are almost never contacted. Even then though, the affected students are heavily discouraged from telling their parents themselves as well." Emma gasped.

"If you can imagine, those families get angry when their children come home and tell them, for the first time, about serious injuries they incurred at school. Which comes to the reason I didn't know any of this from when Lily was there… Those students were often pulled from Hogwarts, and the ones that remain keep quiet when things happen to them. Because they want to stay."

"But that's exactly what a parent is there for! To protect their children. A child is too young to make a decision like that, magic tricks can't be worth risking getting permanently injured." she drew in a deep breath, "Thank you for telling me all of this… I'm not sure how i'm going to explain to Hermione that she's not going to Hogwarts now… I hope you'll still let Hermione come around..."

"You're not going to do that Emma."

Mrs. Granger gaped at her like a fish out of water, "... I say again, I beg your pardon? After everything you've told me…"

"Because if you do that Hermione will die young." Emma stopped and stared at the other woman, "What the Wizards don't bother to mention is that your child's _magical_ guardian is _still _a staff-member of Hogwarts. If you pull your child out of school before passing their fifth year it defaults to the wizard government itself, and their policy is to wipe the memories and bind the magic of anyone who leaves their world for the muggle one. That is what they would consider you to be doing, only the magical guardian can enroll a student in a magical school and the government won't enroll your child outside the country so Hermione would be abandoning magic completely."

Emma had tears in her eyes as Petunia finished, "Besides all of you losing your memories of magic, and that would include us and Harry, if her magic is bound then it will _literally _cut her lifespan. The goblins have data that shows that an unbound witch or wizard lives on average half again longer than those whose magic is bound, only looking at those who died of natural causes…" Petunia looked away, tears in her own eyes now, "Many muggleborn whose magic is bound when they are very young apparently _feel_ that something is wrong, missing, and tend to be depressed and suicidal by their twenties or thirties."

"What do I do? Professor Mcgonagall seems like a nice enough woman, but I don't want to trust Hermione to someone off in Scotland with no proper bloody way of contacting her. If she had been more forthcoming about all of this when she was explaining things to us back in September I might feel different, but…"

Petunia smiled at Mrs. Granger, "Don't worry, Emma, I have a solution. You aren't going to lose Hermione, she isn't going to lose her magic, and they aren't going to cover up anything bad happening to her at school." Petunia pulled a small stack of parchment out of her purse, "These are Magical Guardianship Registration forms. When we went to Gringotts a few weeks ago I learned that I'm technically not a muggle. I'm a squib, a magical person that can't cast spells. That doesn't mean much for my life, honestly, but it _does_ mean that I qualify as magical. Last week I finalized the paperwork to officially become Harry's magical guardian. I used the alias I used during the war to hide while in the alley everywhere except the original form, and because I was blood related the Headmaster couldn't stop me. The goblins said that Dumbledore has been in a couple times trying to find out the new guardian's identity. But he hasn't _once_ come by our home."

Petunia pressed on, "If you would like, and if you trust me to do right by your family, I could become Hermione's magical guardian as well. If you do, it would mean that if anything ever happened to Hermione they would _have _to contact me, Gringotts found a way around the Headmaster's block on our magical mail too, and I would have you on the phone as soon as humanly possible." Petunia chuckled, "I could even request periodic academic progress reports from the teachers if I wanted, something they don't offer to muggle parents even by request." Emma smiled at that.

"Before you make any decisions," Petunia concluded, "find time to go to Gringotts. Inform the teller you walk up to that you are there to ask about your daughter's guardianship at Ms. Acacia's request. Ask for my accounts advisor, Griphook, to give you the information on magical guardianship that he gave me. If you decide you can trust me, you would need to look over this paperwork and sign it; and _do_ write a letter to the Deputy-Headmistress thanking her for her help introducing you to the magical world. Inform her that you are requesting Hermione's magical guardian be changed, via Gringotts, to a squib that you met at a work function or something. If you tell her before the paperwork hits her she likely won't question it beyond a simple authentication with the bank. When you write her, feel free to tell her the squib's name is 'Ms. Peony Acacia.'"

Emma took only seconds to think before accepting the parchment, "Why did you choose such a strange sounding name for your alias? If I were looking for a 'Petunia, sister of Lily', I'd start with the obvious fake name with two flowers in it."

"I made it sound ridiculous so the magicals would all just overlook it. How much sense can they have to be terrified of a man who calls himself 'Voldemort'?" Petunia smirked, remembering when Griphook had told her the proper name of the wizard that killed her sister.

The Grangers had been to France often enough on vacation that Emma and Hermione had learned a conversational amount of the language; it was enough to translate the silly name into English. _Flight From Death_, he might as well have called himself _Tim the Enchanter _for all the terror _that_ should evoke.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**7 June, 1991**

Albus Dumbledore had not had a happy New Year, not at all. It had started out well enough, he had begun the final planning phases of the trap he intended to set for Voldemort in the coming school year and was beginning to get antsy waiting for the time to reclaim Harry Potter from his internment among the muggles.

But, the last week of January he had been struck a most surprising and devastating blow in the form of an official statement from Gringotts re-assigning Harry's _de facto _magical guardianship to a squib named 'Peony Acacia' who was somehow related to the Potters. The goblins had been all too happy to strip Albus' access to the Potter vaults in favor of a relative, even some distant and forgotten squib. Especially once they somehow learned that Albus wasn't taking action to help raise the boy; which is what he'd told them to justify his withdrawals from the child's trust account over the last decade, since he wasn't the magical guardian _they _had on file even before Ms. Acacia came into the picture.

The first thing he had done was floo-call Mrs. Figg, his spy in Privet Drive. She had told him that there was nothing especially out of the ordinary in the last several months, Harry was a quiet boy who mostly stayed inside. Every now and then he would join the local kids for a game or two, but he spent most of his outside time mowing his neighbor's lawns and washing their cars for extra spending cash. He even did her own yard regularly during the summers these past few years. Though, she mused, he never seemed to have many new things except at Christmas and his birthday, which he shared with his cousin. Albus had never felt so vindicated in sending Harry to the Dursleys. With no financial support and no love of magic in the household Harry would learn to be quick-thinking and resourceful, useful traits for helping him achieve his destiny. That the Dursleys at least cared enough to include him at Christmas and celebrate a birthday, even a wrong one, meant that the Blood Wards he had placed would hold strong.

The fact that a pair of muggle doctors had been bringing their daughter over the past few weekends didn't concern him, having a close friend in the muggle world would make sending him back there every summer that much easier. Though she would need to be watched in the future, it wouldn't do for the Potter Heir to become _too _close to a muggle. None of that information helped Albus figure out who 'Peony Acacia' was, though, so he had done the unthinkable and begun contemplating who _else_ might know something. An order by the Wizengamot could force Gringotts to present the magical guardian, but that was a last resort. He wanted to avoid bringing the Ministry into this issue if at all possible, but he had been given the run-around by the goblins for the last five months and he was growing desperate.

As Albus contemplated his problems, he rounded a corner in the castle to find Minerva sending the Weasley twins off, likely after giving them detentions. She kept much closer ties to her graduated students than he did. Perhaps, the Headmaster thought, she would remember James mentioning an 'Acacia' family that he was related to.

"Minerva, how fortuitous." He called to her, his eyes twinkling as he smiled, effectively hiding his stressed nerves.

"Albus? How can I help you? I've just finished undoing the newest act of chaos by those twin menaces, so I'm not in the mood to hear how you need me to take more paperwork at the moment! At least wait for the last few weeks of term to pass!"

"Ah. no, quite… No, I was wondering if you had heard of an 'Acacia' family before? It's apparent head is a squib woman named 'Peony'... I've been trying to get in contact with them for some time, but I seem to have lost their records."

The professor looked at him like he'd grown a second head, "Albus, don't try to lie to me, why are you going through my correspondence? You specifically handed guardianship responsibilities for all muggleborn students to _me_ the year after I began working here."

"Ah, but Minerva, I did _not _give you guardianship of _one specific_ child, ten years ago. You remember?" He returned.

Minerva was still displeased that poor Harry had been simply left on that doorstep, there were plenty of magical families that would have raised him, Merlin _she _would have done it. Albus assured her that he kept in contact with Harry, but she doubted it sometimes. He never had any stories of the boy to tell, just 'he's doing well' or some such platitude.

"What are you talking about Albus?" She furrowed her brows in confusion, "Ms. Peony Acacia became the magical guardian of a muggleborn girl some months ago. I was worried when I first received the letter that she was trying to transfer to a different school, even at eleven I could tell this girl was uncommonly brilliant, but after the change in guardianship went through, Ms. Acacia merely asked that she be kept apprised of young Miss Granger's health and standing while at school. What does this have to do with your _special case_."

_Miss WHAT! _Albus thought to himself,_ isn't that the name of those doctors that Mrs. Figg mentioned a few months back? How is _that _possible?_

"Minerva, when did this change in guardianship happen?"

"I received a letter from the Grangers asking for the change the week after Valentine's. I signed and returned the assignance confirmation the next week."

"And the girls parents?... What did they do? Their profession."

"I must say Albus, this level of interest in a random student is a little unsettling." Minerva frowned at her mentor, "Her parents are both dentists, a kind of muggle doctor that deals with teeth I believe" Albus appeared lost in his own mind, so she waited for him to remember he wasn't in the privacy of his office.

_Oh no_, he thought. If this woman took the Granger girl's guardianship just a month after she started coming around the Dursleys' house_… _There was only one explanation, Ms. Acacia may not be willing to interact with people, but she was _clearly _watching Harry Potter now that he was her ward. There was no way Albus would be able to get guardianship back if there was evidence that this woman was actually taking an interest in the boy's life. He couldn't even bring out that the she couldn't directly contact Harry without revealing what he'd done to keep the child isolated.

No, Albus realized. Until he could _find _Ms. Peony Acacia, meet her on _his _terms, and convince her to give him _back _guardianship of Harry, he would need to tread carefully. Being caught snooping around the Dursleys now could be used against him when he made his move.

The Headmaster remembered he was standing in the middle of the corridor with his deputy staring at him, "I'm sorry Minerva, It wasn't Miss Granger I was actually concerned about. You've given me much to think on though, thank you and good day." With an extra twinkle and a smile, he turned and headed towards the gargoyle that served as the protector of his sanctum. _Three months till the term started back, perhaps I can learn what I need from the boy then._

Minerva McGonagall had thought the Granger family changing magical guardians like that was rather strange. They had requested more information from her multiple times and every time she'd returned with answers and titles they could purchase for reference. The whole family was smart, she knew they wouldn't act quickly or rashly. Minerva had assumed that Ms. Acacia was a family friend that had revealed herself as a squib after Hermione got her letter.

Now… now she felt it was time for her to write a letter of her own. The response was pretty much what she expected after that incident with the Headmaster:

"_Deputy Headmistress Mcgonagall, _

_I am well aware of the machinations of the Headmaster with regards to the more.., _

_famous, of my wards. Thank you for your openness with this issue, it gives me great hope for my wards' future at your establishment. Please let me know if Albus continues to bother you about me and I shall have the goblins deal with it. I look forward to meeting you in the future._

_\- _Ms._ Peony Acacia"_

It was as to be expected… except that very few people felt comfortable referring to Albus Dumbledore with the same tone they would a particularly offensive cockroach.


	5. Chapter 4: A Birthday Surprise

I own nothing of Harry Potter. There are some quotes in this chapter, as well as the next two, that will be the same or similar to passages from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

A Birthday Surprise

**31 July, 1991**

All of Harry and Dudley's friends clapped and cheered as they finished singing "Happy Birthday" and watched Harry blow out the eleven candles on the cake, which featured a wizard in grey robes that looked vaguely like Gandalf casting a spell at a wizard in black robes drawn on it in icing. Harry, uncomfortable being the center of attention, tried to back out of the crowd as his aunt began serving slices but almost jumped when Hermione grabbed him and held him still, much to his friends' amusement.

It had been a major deal last month when Harry and Dudley told their friend circle that Hermione was going to the same boarding school as Harry. Especially when that news came coupled with the fact that the Grangers had been able to get information about Harry out of the school, and they now knew when his actual birthday was. True, it was really Gringotts that had provided that information, but the Dursleys had been so happy for their boys that they had gone all out for Dudley's party last month, and now had done so again for Harry.

Christina Polkiss was the only one at the party not _totally_ thrilled for Harry. Yeah, she was glad that Harry knew a little more about his parents, and especially when his actual birthday was. It must have been dreadful to have to share your birthday with your cousin for nine years! But who did this _Hermione _think she was? Tina had been Harry's friend for way longer, but there she was right beside him while he ate cake.

It was like that from the first weekend that Hermione had been over, back in January. The week before christmas, Harry was at Tina's birthday party and he'd said they were best friends, then a week later he's going to Crawley to hang out with this girl. Or she was coming here, it didn't matter. Normally Harry was glad to help Tina with her math homework whenever they got together for a study group, but the first weekend they had together that year he spent the whole time getting people to talk to _'my new friend Hermione'_.

After that they had started studying some of their advanced classes more and more often for that boarding school Harry was going off to this fall. That was going to be terrible, a whole school term without seeing her best friend! But of course the _new girl_ would get to see him all the time. Tina looked over at Harry and Hermione again and sighed. _I'm sure she's a witch or something, an evil curse is the only way Harry would change so fast_, Tina thought dejectedly. If only she could find some fairy magic and use it to save Harry from the wicked witch.

When the party moved to the nearby park for a game of football, Tina got it in her mind to investigate her new explanation for the evils of Hermione Granger. While getting some water, she went peeking into the older girl's unattended bookbag.

This was how she happened upon a well bookmarked tome that would go on to prove all her theories about Hermione Granger were right, just not in the way she thought: _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_.

_I'll save my friends from you, you witch, _She thought as she studied the table of contents, _I won't let you hurt my brother, or Dudley, and especially not Harry!_

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Hermione dear, I don't think I saw you reading even once the entire time you were over today. Are you _sure_ that you brought it? Could your parents have taken it out of your bag before you came?" Petunia was positive that Hermione wasn't the type of girl to misplace a book, particularly one as important to her as that one, and they'd been looking since the party ended an hour ago. The only book she loved more was _Hogwarts_: _A History_, and Harry had secretly confided to his aunt that he hoped actually seeing Hogwarts would curb his friend's tendency to quote from the book constantly during talks about magic.

"I suppose they could have, Mrs. Dursley… Harry does have a copy upstairs, so that makes sense." She said, thoughtfully.

"Wonderful, and Hermione? Don't let yourself get too down because you couldn't stay tonight, sweetie. Harry got his acceptance letter this morning, so we can all go to the Alley and get you kid's your wands on Monday after you and your family are back from the beach. Now, your parents are about thirty minutes away, go show those boys who's the Mario Queen before they get here," She smirked as the girl turned and scampered into the family room. According to Emma Hermione had never been much into games, or friends, growing up. You couldn't tell that now, the way she interacted with her boys and their crew.

She peeked her head back in the doorway a moment later, "Actually Mrs. Dursley, Its 'Princess Toadstool." Then she ran back to the telly. Petunia chuckled, introverted indeed.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The next evening, just before dinner, the doorbell rang. When Petunia answered it she found little Tina Polkiss nervously fidgeting on the porch. Strangely she was wearing a light jacket, and seemed to be hiding something bulky under it.

"Mrs. Dursley, m-may I come in?" The girl's voice was shaking as much as she was.

"Of course dear! Is something wrong? Do your parents know you're here?" Petunia asked her as she guided the ten-year-old to a comfortable seat on the couch. She noticed the child made sure to keep whatever was under her jacket hidden from view.

"Tina dear, what have you got there? It isn't dangerous is it?"

"I don't think s-s-so." She stuttered as she began to cry a little, "My mu-m-mummy knows I'm here. I said I wanted to ask Harry ab-bout a book."

"What's wrong deary?" As Petunia asked, Harry and Dudley entered the room. Tina looked up at Harry and began sobbing.

"THIS IS Y-Y-YOU ISN'T IT, H-Harry." She pulled out a book, open to a marked page with a picture of a family of three, juxtaposed against a blown-out two-story cottage. As she held it open, the pictures began moving. The book was specially enchanted _not_ to move if it wasn't near strong enough magic, to keep it from muggles. But now that it was in Number 4 Privet Drive, the headmaster's blood wards told the book to activate.

"WHY DID IT DO THAT?" Tina shrieked, her tears temporarily forgotten, as she dropped the book and fell back into the couch, her eyes transfixed on the moving images, "OH MY GOSH THAT MEANS IT'S REAL!"

With Vernon and Petunia at a loss for how to handle the situation, it was up to Harry to sit down on the couch beside her and hold her as her crying started up again, then calmed down. "Yeah. Those are my parents, there," He whispered reverently, pointing them out, "and that was the house we lived in before they died." Harry looked Tina dead in the eyes, "Tina, all the stuff in this book is real. Magic, Dark Lords," he broke eye contact for a second and choked, "and H-Hero Parents. I was left here by a wizard after they died. and when he left me, he also put a magic shield around my aunt and uncle's house that keeps out all grown-up magical people until I'm ready to go to school. That way the other evil wizards can't find me."

He locked her gaze again, "You can't tell _anyone _about this, Tina. I'm magic too, and I'm sure you can guess that the special boarding school Hermione and I are going to is Magic school." The girl nodded.

"Right." He continued, "But you have to _promise_ me that you won't tell anyone else about magic. They probably wouldn't believe you anyways, but real wizards could find out and then Hermione and I would be in big trouble. Okay?" Petunia was astounded, Harry apparently had a commanding presence when he needed one. But it was definitely a _kind _presence, Harry would make a wonderful doctor (or healer, _whatever_) if his dreams didn't change.

"Okay Harry…I promise!"

"Why did you take her book to begin with, Tina? That's not really like you." Dudley asked from behind Harry.

"I'm so sorry! I… I was worried for you and Harry! It's just… Harry became Hermione's friend so fast, and he doesn't really open up to people at first when they're alone like that. Dudley's usually the one bringing new people into the group. So I thought maybe she was an evil witch and had cast a love spell or something, like from 'Disney'." She pouted when the two boys looked incredulously at her, "What? I was at least half-right! She _is_ a witch, isn't she?"

Harry hugged her and laughed at that, and Tina smiled, she was worried Harry would hate her for betraying his trust like this. She was just so worried about him! But if he's magic and she's the first magic person he's gotten to meet, it makes sense they'd become friends fast.

"So I guess I have another question, if it's alright?" Her tears had mostly stopped, knowing her friends were still her friends.

Harry smiled and nodded, "No secrets between us now, as long as you can _keep_ them between us."

"Is that magic shield thing what gives me that tingly-feeling when I come to your house? My parents just said I was 'too young to feel that way about boys', but I've always felt it. Even when we weren't friends yet."

Harry was speechless, while Dudley began loudly complaining about how unfair the world was. Petunia just fainted.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

After two days with no response from the Dursley household Albus began sending extra owls to make sure Harry got them. Every day without a response, Albus had increased the number of owls. There was supposed to be a magical guardian, after all. Shouldn't they be able to respond on behalf of the Dursleys? If Albus could force a situation where a teacher was required to go collect Harry for his school supplies, he could likely press for guardianship back. To that end he had called Hagrid up to his office this Monday morning, almost a week after Harry's first letter was sent out.

Which left him rather perturbed when the half-giant came up the stairs accompanied by his deputy headmistress. Hagrid apparently couldn't help but brag that he was going to see Harry Potter again.

"Now, Minerva, I'm sure there's no reason to trouble you for this. Hagrid will be more than capable of showing the boy around Diagon Alley."

"Albus, if the Dursleys aren't responding because, as you say, they dislike magic and the 'abnormal'; then an eleven-foot-tall man showing up on their street will drive them spare! I may not be able to remember exactly _where_ that house is, but I do remember the _uniformity _there. No, I will go and see what the trouble is, at least I can blend in."

"Profes'r M'Gonagall, I was really lookin' forward tah see'n Harry again. Haven't since I held 'im as a tyke. I gotta run an errand fer Dumbledore at Gringotts anyways, can ah meet you at the 'Leakey? Jus'ta say 'hi'? Maybe 'Happy Birthday'?"

Minerva smiled at her big friend, "I don't see why that would be a problem Hagrid. I'll meet you there with Harry in a little while."

_Dammit_, Albus thought to himself as they left, _I'm going to regret this._

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Mcgonagall appeared in the alley Albus had indicated was perfect as an apparition point to Harry's home and stepped out onto the street, Number 4 shouldn't be too difficult to find should it? No, not when there were a half dozen people gathered out front gawking at two boys frantically trying to gather up what looked like _hundreds_ of letters on their front lawn.

"What in Merlin's name?" She drew her wand and cast a few quick _confundus_ charms, sending the muggle bystanders away as she approached.

"I hope we don't have _you_ to thank for the nonsense these past few days?" A stern looking woman asked from the front porch, _the same porch she remembered leaving little Harry on all those years ago._

"Ma'am, I have no explanation for why so _many_ letters would be directed to your home." She could tell from looking that they were all Hogwarts letters, "I was sent because the Headmaster felt you might be ignoring the school. I am the professor of transfiguration." The woman obviously knew what was happening, no reason to insult her with lengthy explanations.

"Well, we would have loved to reply that Harry would be attending, but the owls flew away right after dropping the letters, it's not like _we_ have an owl. And every time I tried to mail that blasted school over the years the letters were returned as undeliverable."

Mcgonagall picked up one of the letters and opened it, _this letter is for _magical _raised children…, it assumes the recipient already had a means of reply… what?_ Albus had to know that Harry Potter was muggle raised, what was he thinking?

"The magical guardian… Ms. Acacia." Mcgonagall muttered under her breath.

"I beg your pardon? What's that?" The woman looked rather perturbed.

"I assume you already have a copy of this letter?" At the woman's nod she swept her wand and vanished all the extras, "Then please allow us to talk inside, the spell that sent those looky-loos away will be wearing off soon and we shouldn't be out here when it does." She gestured to her attire.

"Yes, boys, please come in here." With that she gestured Mcgonagall inside, "May I presume that you are Professor 'Mcgonagall'?"

"That's correct," she responded as she sat down, _one surprise after another it seems_.

"Ma'am, do you have the ability to tell definitively if a person is magical?" The out-of-the-blue question surprised her yet again.

"Yes, there's a spell that can be used to indicate witches and wizards in a room. Do you suspect your son of being a wizard?" She looked at the muscular boy, "If I recall, he is older than Harry. He would have received a letter on his birthday if he were a wizard."

"Oh, no… not anymore anyways. Give me one moment, if you have any questions for Harry please ask them. I need to make a phone call if you wouldn't mind." Minerva's eyebrow rose, "It will only be a moment, I promise." With that she left the room.

After a minute of awkward silence Mcgonagall tried to break the ice, "So, Mr. Potter. How have you liked living with your aunt and uncle?"

"It's alright," he answered noncommittally, he looked like he wasn't sure if he could trust the witch in front of him. _That doesn't bode well._

"Are you sure," As she asked, the aunt, _Petunia, _that was her name, came back in from the kitchen.

"Deputy Headmistress, please humour me for a minute or two longer. I put some tea to brew for us, it should be ready in time." Mcgonagall could only nod and smile, but she was growing wary, she didn't recall giving her full title before.

"Can you really turn into a cat?" The larger boy said his first words since she'd arrived.

"I'm sorry, where did you hear that?" The boy covered his mouth, clearly he knew things she wasn't suspecting and wasn't supposed to tell. _Alright_, she thought, let's see where this leads, "Yes, I can in fact. It's a very difficult kind of magic that very few people learn; mostly because the animal you become is always the same, and you can't choose what kind of animal you end up changing into. Meaning that you can go through all the work, only to learn you can turn into an earthworm or something."

After giving her explanation she transformed into a grey and brown tabby cat, meowed, then changed back with a chuckle at both boys' slack-jawed expression. The boys excitedly asked her questions, much to the professor's delight, which kept her from noticing when Petunia led two more people into the room until they were already well inside.

"Mrs. Dursley, I would have thought you knew not to bring in people about this."

"Cast the spell now." Petunia replied. "Little Tina here says that she can feel the ward on the house."

The mother looked up from her daughter at Petunia, confused, "Spell?"

"Cast the spell and tell us if she's magical." Petunia reiterated.

Mcgonagall was not used to being spoken to like this by muggle parents.

"Wait what?" Mrs. Polkiss asked, her face going white.

"Very well," There wasn't much to lose for doing it, the damage was already done, if nothing came of it she would obliviate the pair and have a stern talk with Mrs. Dursley… and Ms. Acacia when they finally met.

She cast the spell, which would cause any witch or wizard to glow if they were within about twenty feet. The girl began glowing with a golden aura and giggled happily, her mum was eyeing the light warily but still clung to her daughter.

"Mum, look at this!" Dudley Dursley was glowing as well!

"Oh Merlin." The professor sighed.

"I knew it!" Harry exclaimed.

A few explanations, and a lot of confusion, later, Professor Mcgonagall understood what had brought Tina Polkiss and her mother there that morning. Not that she approved _per se_, but she felt no reason to obliviate the pair when they would apparently learn of magic again in December. Learning that Dudley Dursley was a wizard was quite a revelation though, a patronus message to Flitwick back at Hogwarts was returned and confirmed his name _did _appear in the Hogwarts Book, which meant Dudley should have received a letter and didn't. Likely due to the Headmasters ridiculously overbearing wards.

Harry was quick to supply the story of his aunt and Dudley glowing that night three years ago. At first that annoyed Petunia, but she realized that it was her need to know about Dudley that hurt her then, anyways. Had she _known_ she might have tried harder to get to Diagon and caused a problem for the family.

The final surprise came when Mcgonagall stated that she would be happy to take Dudley to Diagon Alley with Harry to get their school supplies, as she was his, Dudley's, magical guardian, by default, and that was her duty in that capacity.

"Oh, that you are most certainly _not_." Petunia replied calmly, glancing at Mrs. Polkiss, "Hogwarts' Deputy Headmistress, Minerva Mcgonagall." She had clearly elaborated the title for the other woman, the witch smirked at her, "During the last wizarding war, I stayed in contact with the magical world up until the night Albus cut us off. I did so through the use of an alias. I am _Ms._ Peony Acacia._ I, not you, _am my son's default magical guardian."

Mcgonagall sank into her chair, completely shocked. She was expecting to be told _about_ Ms. Acacia at this meeting. Maybe even have a chance to set up a future time to meet in person, likely at Gringotts. Never in a million years could she have imagined _this_. Minerva couldn't help herself, this was too much. The Weasley twins were amateurs compared to _this_.

She began laughing uncontrollably.

After twenty seconds without a break in the older woman's laughter, Petunia turned to her friend and apologized for lying to get her over here before briefly explaining the existence of the magical world, she even pulled out the very book Tina had 'borrowed' that started this mess to show her what had had Tina in such a state after Harry's party from where she had stashed it under the couch. Angela returned with stories of when Tina was much younger and food she didn't like would disappear and show up in the dog's food bowl, but that stopped around the same time she started visiting the Dursleys. Meanwhile, Harry and Dudley were telling Tina about the professor turning into a cat earlier.

Angela Polkiss was scared at first. When Petunia had called her ten minutes ago to say that Tina might be able to get into the same elite boarding school as Harry if the representative met the girl right then, she was thrilled. Now she wasn't so positive. Her family was rather religious, and she wasn't sure how she could explain this to them. Witches and dark lords and magic castles sounded like a fast track to a priest or an exorcist. Petunia saved her by offering to be there when the conversation happened and help show them that this is was a gift, not some demonic taint.

"Forgive me, Mrs… Ms… um, oh dear." Mcgonagall had managed to pull herself together again.

"Mrs. Dursley, or just Petunia, if you wouldn't mind. I only wish to be Ms. Acacia when we are inthe magical world, and then only when we are acting in 'official' capacities. Your warning about Albus' snooping was enough to earn my trust for now, so I'd like to keep things between _us _civil." Mcgonagall's eyes widened at the implication of that and nodded.

"Very well, Mrs. Dursley, please forgive me for losing my composure there. It's just that the Headmaster has spent _six-months_ trying to find 'Ms. Peony Acacia' without alerting the Wizengamot… the magical house of lords," Petunia nodded, "without alerting them that he had lost your nephew's guardianship authority. I asked him in late June if he'd contacted _you _directly about it. He assured me that you wouldn't have been involved intentionally, as your family hated magic and wizards, and that there was no point in bothering you and risking angering you."

Petunia smiled, "I will prepare a letter for Albus from Ms. Acacia, if you think that is safe, explaining that I have no desire to bring myself into the spotlight unless he is intent to drag me there. As long as he doesn't try to _directly_ claim custody of my nephew, I believe I'm content to let him lead people on, at least for now." Mcgonagall could swear that the Petunia's smile turned sinister for a moment, "I would consider it an added layer of protection for Harry as well. One unfortunate fact I learned after returning to the magical world last Christmas was that there were many of those dark wizards that were never caught, or that somehow got out of sentencing. Keeping this place 'off-the-grid' as they say, is still a good idea."

"That sounds acceptable, and maybe it would get the headmaster back on track running the school. This has consumed him recently. Now, I must ask, how do you intend to help Mrs… Polkiss, yes? I'm sorry this has just been so much. How do you intend to help Mrs. Polkiss explain magic to her family if you are not, yourself, able to perform it?"

"Well, I was planning to do it _here_. I figured books with moving pictures would go a long way," Petunia smiled, "That, plus some easily demonstrated potions effects should do nicely don't you think? Harry and Hermione have been quite busy on nights when one of them stays over with the other, we have several small jars of Dittany Balm and Boil Paste, since it has a very long shelf life. But I think something more obvious, like an oil recipe Hermione found that waterproofs paper, would be best. The kids have been practicing potions and memorizing plant names and ingredients because they aren't allowed to cast spells at home."

"I think that would work perfectly, and I am very pleased that Mister Potter will not be returning to the magical world with no warning or preparation." The witch nodded, "If you need help, perhaps a demonstration of spellcasting, please let me know. You obviously know how to contact me. Erm, the headmaster sent me to take Harry, and I suppose Dudley now as well, to Diagon Alley for their school supplies… but if you already have? Or would prefer to go yourselves?"

"Actually, we were planning to meet Emma and Hermione Granger at the Alley… we were needing to leave soon when you came calling, oh dear, she'll likely be getting there in less than half-an-hour. We already have Harry's books because we got the list from Hermione. But we'll need to get supplies for Dudley now… We were waiting until after Harry's eleventh to get both the children's wands." Mrs. Polkiss looked panicked at the thought that her friend might be leaving her to fend for herself today with this information.

Mcgonagall, noticing the woman's distress, offered a solution, "There was someone that _I _had intended to meet at Diagon as well, Rubeus Hagrid, so I'll be heading that way after this regardless. He's the groundskeeper for Hogwarts, and he was close to Harry's parents when they were in school."

Harry perked up at that.

"Before I stepped in, on account of the man's utter lack of ability to fit-in in the muggle world, _he _was the one the Headmaster was going to send to check on Harry. But, I was able to convince him to wait at the Leaky Cauldron for us. I could take Harry and Dudley to Diagon, that way they won't be late meeting with miss Granger either. Then you would be able to stay and help your friend through this… transition." Both other women snorted at that understatement.

Petunia looked at her boys, she'd really wanted to be there when Harry got his wand. Lily had said that getting her first wand had been an incredible experience, and she was sad Petunia had missed it. But Angela and Tina needed her help here, today; Christina Polkiss being a witch had thrown all of Petunia's plans into disarray.

"If the boys are okay with that, I believe it would solve our problems nicely." Petunia looked to the two wizards for confirmation before continuing, "Understand though, that Emma Granger will be acting as my representative while the five, or six of you with Mr. Hagrid, will be in the Alley, not you. I don't want there to be any confusion on that point." After the professor had nodded her ascent, Petunia turned to the boys, "Harry, please go upstairs and grab your key… Would you mind paying for Dudley's things while you're there? I can move the gold back into your school vault the next time I go." Harry nodded and headed up the stairs to his room.

"Mrs… Petunia. You seemed to hesitate there? About more than who's in charge I mean." The woman looked away for a moment.

"Yes I… I've always regretted not being there for Lily when she got her first wand… Would it be possible for you to save that for last?" She glanced at Angela and Tina.

"I think I see where you are going, let me offer a solution?" Mcgonagall asked, "I could take the boys to the Alley, I'm sure you know I could have them there in moments, then leave them in the care of Mrs. Granger. Afterwards, I could return here and help you introduce the rest of the Polkiss family to the magical world. _Then_, if the children wait till last to get their wands, I should be able to take you to Diagon as well to see it."

Petunia sighed in relief at hearing Mcgonagall's willingness to give up her time for them, "Professor, thank you for your help here. I was honestly trying to figure out how to get you to come without giving away that it wasn't for Harry or Hermione. Finding out Tina could feel the ward on the house was quite destabilizing." She looked over at her friend and smiled, "You can tell Timothy that Tina _definitely_ passed her interview for school. Would you like to speak with the Professor for a little while before we bring in your family?"

"I think that would be good." The woman replied, "If I see it with my own eyes maybe it will help me wrap my head around telling Timothy and Piers about this. It's a lot to take in…"

"Truly," Mcgonagall replied as Harry returned from his room with a hat on, she noticed that he had also covered his scar with some sort of muggle cosmetic, "Well, we should be off. Hagrid will be getting worried, Mrs. Granger as well, if they are there already. If you both will take hold of my arms and we shall be off."

The boys looked at her a little strangely before glancing at each other, shrugging, and doing as she bade, "Excellent. Mrs. Dursley, Mrs. Polkiss, I shall return shortly after ensuring that the boys are safely delivered to Mrs. Granger. Now, boys, hold tightly. I am about to apparate with the both of you to Diagon. The Headmaster altered the wards for the day just for this."

"Isn't that like teleporting?" Dudley asked from the professor's right arm, at her nod he grinned and said, "Awesome." The three disappeared from the family room in a _crack_.

Angela Polkiss' legs gave out on her and she fell to her knees, staring at the spot where three people had been just a moment ago. Secretly, she was hoping that the moving picture-book was some kind of elaborate hoax. Not anymore…

"Mummy, next time we have to ask her to turn into a cat!"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

When Harry and Dudley finished their side-along apparition with Mcgonagall they both stumbled forward. Dudley hit the ground and rolled onto his back, laughing as he almost pulled his escort down with him. Harry caught himself before he lost his footing, but looked queasy.

"Now I know how the toothpaste feels when comes out of the tube…" Harry muttered as he fought to keep his breakfast down, "Is it always like that?"

Mcgonagall chuckled as she took in the disparate reactions, "It's something most have to get used to. I honestly envy your cousin his enjoyment of it though. Now, this is the designated apparition point for Diagon Alley, behind The Leaky Cauldron. Which I'm sure you know is the muggle face for the Alley." She studied the boys, Dudley was looking around curiously, but Harry had simply nodded in acknowledgement. Clearly he knew where he was.

"Mister Po-," She shook her head and stopped herself, Harry looked up at her strangely. She began leading them into the back of The Leaky Cauldron as she continued, "For the duration of this trip, I believe it would be best if everyone called you _both_ 'Mister Dursley', brothers, in an effort to keep crowds away from you. The whole of magical Britain knows that last week was your eleventh birthday. That hat and the disguise on your scar will help tremendously, and if I need to differentiate you from your cousin I will call you _James _Dursley. I'm sure you're aware of the pedestal our society has placed you on, so I shouldn't need to explain why." He nodded again and they entered the tavern.

Hagrid almost blew Harry's cover immediately, as the man was clearly too excited to contain himself upon seeing Professor Mcgonagall enter the tavern. The only thing restraining his outburst was his confusion at seeing Dudley's large body and short, brown hair. By the time he finally saw Harry entering behind his cousin, Mcgonagall had closed the distance and gotten his exuberance under control. He still blubbered when he saw the child of his lost friends. But he was known as an emotional fellow, so it didn't draw too much undue attention.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Professor Mcgonagall? What a pleasant surprise." The group had just enough time to stand up to say 'hello' to Mrs. Granger before a frizzy, brown-haired missile sailed into Harry, latching onto him in a hug; which Hermione quickly jumped away from, wincing. Harry was devastated for the two seconds it took him to realize that her face was _very_ sunburnt. Then he gingerly returned her hug, doing his best not to put any pressure on her skin.

Emma Granger couldn't help but chuckle at her daughter's predicament, "Next time you'll remember to put on sunscreen!"

"But Hermione, I thought we had made a couple batches of _Daywalker_, what happened?" Harry asked, confused.

Mcgonagall answered for her, "_Daywalker_ is a very effective sunblock for being relatively simple to brew. So strong that, as the name implies, it can allow a vampire to walk in daylight for a limited amount of time." She smiled, "What most textbooks, or recipes for that matter, would leave out of the instructions is that salt, particularly _sweat_, will break down the potion and cause it to evaporate due to slug flesh being a primary ingredient. This obviously isn't an issue for vampires, as they don't sweat. But it makes the potion not very useful for young witches on the beach." Hermione was probably blushing in embarrassment for not realizing that, but it would be impossible to tell.

"Thank you, Professor. Hermione has fretted all weekend over what she and Harry could have done wrong in making the cream." Emma eyed Hagrid as she spoke, "Professor, I was expecting to meet someone… _else… _here with Harry. Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yes quite. There was a change of plans."

Dudley spoke up, "We found out what happened to your book Hermione." At her questioning look he continued, "Tina took it out of your bookbag when we were at the park." Hermione gasped, "Get this, she thought you were a witch and had cast a spell on Harry or something." He and Harry laughed, but Emma was rapidly losing her new tan as she looked at Mcgonagall.

"Professor, exactly what _kind_ of change in plans has happened?"

"Nothing to worry about Mrs. Granger. Christina Polkiss did in fact take your daughter's book, but she went to the Dursleys the next night to ask them if _certain chapters_ were real. While there, it was discovered that she might be a muggleborn witch herself." Emma and Hermione were speechless, "This morning I visited the Dursleys' home to verify if _James_ here", she looked meaningfully at Hagrid, "would be attending Hogwarts. While there, I confirmed that Miss Polkiss was, in fact, a witch."

Before she could spoil it for him, Dudley interjected again, "And I'm a wizard too! I glowed when she cast the spell and everything!"

"Indeed," Mcgonagall continued, smiling, "I verified that his name appears on the Hogwarts list, the ledger of all students magically invited to attend the school. I can only assume that the wards on the house prevented Dudley's letter from being delivered. The Headmaster was personally seeing to the letters going to James."

"Blimey!" Hagrid exclaimed, "I'm glad I let you go tah pick 'im up now Mcgonagall. I'd not known what ta' do there. Welcome to tha magical world then Dudley! Are ya excited?" The boy smiled and nodded.

"Oh my. So is that why Petunia is not here?" Emma asked, more at ease.

"Yes. Actually, Angela Polkiss was worried that she would need help explaining magic to her family. Petunia felt she should stay to help her friend, and I offered to bring the boys here and, if you wouldn't mind, leave them with you. Meanwhile, I felt I should offer my help in explaining things to Mister Polkiss. She just asked that you saved wands for last. She hopes to be able to be here for that."

"That sounds perfect to me professor."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I'm serious, It was a whole vault just for some little thing wrapped up in brown paper, it was lower than my school vault too." Harry was explaining to Dudley and the Grangers while they ate lunch in the Leaky Cauldron and waited on his aunt.

"James," Mrs. Granger chided, "Are you sure you should be talking about this? He and Mcgonagall implied that he was on business for the school." Hermione nodded in agreement with her mum.

"Maybe, but if it was supposed to be secret he shouldn't have talked about it _so much._ He spent the whole time we weren't riding the cart talking about how great the headmaster was and how much he trusted Hagrid to help with really important errands. Then, I was worried the cart driver was going to throw us out when Mr. Hagrid suggested that Headmaster Dumbledore," He smirked at Hermione, who insisted on proper titles even for people she didn't particularly like, "being at Hogwarts meant that was the only place safer than _Gringotts _while we were headed back up. You don't suggest that the goblins don't take security seriously _right in front of them_." The others could only nod at that, and the owl on the table hooted indignantly.

"Don't worry Hedwig, we still think he's a good guy. Just doesn't do 'subtle'. If that goblin had tossed him out of the cart then we wouldn't have gotten you." Dudley said to placate the beautiful snowy owl in her cage.

After they had finished all their shopping except for wands Hagrid had insisted on getting Harry a pet to take to Hogwarts for his birthday. At first Harry had wanted to protest, he already had Najash, but Hermione had suggested that he get an owl that the three of them could share to keep in touch with their families. Harry and Dudley decided on a stunningly gorgeous snowy owl that the shop owner had said was rather ornery, but seemed to warm up to the boys instantly. They named her 'Hedwig', which Harry remembered from A History of Magic as being an exceptionally beautiful witch who was also a spell inventor.

"But, aside from that. He basically said that Dumbledore doesn't think Voldemort is dead. 'Not enough humanity left to die' was what he said I think, but read between the lines: no body, no proof. Just like Uncle Vernon's always said." Harry finished. Emma frowned at the blase way the boy was talking about a murderer potentially still being after him, but didn't say anything.

"What was the deal with that blonde kid in the robe shop, though?" Dudley asked, after the silence became uncomfortable, "He didn't stop talking about Mr. Hagrid and Harry the whole time he was there." He frowned, "And what was his problem with Mrs. Granger?"

"I assume he was one of the more close-minded wizards that your mother warned us about, Dudley." Emma Granger responded. "Who think that non magical people shouldn't be allowed here. Even as family."

They didn't have to wait much longer before Professor Mcgonagall entered the tavern with Petunia Dursley, who was eyeing the white owl Dudley was cooing to rather warily, she didn't need much convincing to agree to keeping Hedwig though, she had been worried that her children wouldn't be able to communicate with her while at school and this solved that dilemma nicely.

Seeing that everyone had already eaten, Mcgonagall suggested they head on to the wand shop; realizing that the professor might be in a hurry at this point, Emma offered to take the Dursleys home in her SUV so she could get back to the school. Before the thankful witch could get away, Harry stopped her to ask one last question.

"Professor, the invitation letter says we can bring an owl, cat, or toad. Dudley and I were planning to share Hedwig here, but I have a different pet I found in the back garden a few years ago that I wanted to take. Can exceptions be made? At school Hedwig could 'officially' be Dudley's one pet." Dudley smiled and nodded at the obvious compromise.

"Yes, Mr. Dursley, that wouldn't be an issue as long as the pet isn't a dog. What is its name?" Mcgonagall had had a very long morning. She wasn't about to question Harry Potter taking a mouse or rat to Hogwarts, maybe he'll make friends with Percy Weasley over it.

"His name is 'Najash' ma'am." Harry replied.

"Alright, I'll make sure to update your file. Good day, everyone." The woman stepped over to the tavern's hearth, grabbed a pinch of something from a jar that she threw into the fireplace, then stepped right into the now green flames and was gone.

"That doesn't look like I'm going to enjoy it any more than apparating." Harry said, glumly, as the group headed back into the alley towards the wand shop.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Ah! Welcome, welcome!" a rather eccentric, and ancient, looking man said from his stool behind the counter as the five entered 'Ollivander's Wands'. "Miss Granger, Mr. Dursley, I expected both of you to come through my doors already. Why, Miss Granger I was beginning to worry something had happened to _you_." Seeing the adults' looks, he took pity on them, "Forgive me, madames, I am Garrick Ollivander, the proprietor."

He paused as he looked at the last young person to walk into his store, "Mr. Potter, _please_ let me tell you how honored I am to finally meet you." He stepped closer, " You are the spitting image of your father, but you have your mother's eyes…" The two women were gawking at the old wizard as he winked and turned towards his boxes and pulled one out, removing the wand within, "Now then, ladies first. Miss Granger, please give this a wave."

It took almost ten minutes for Mr. Ollivander to find Hermione's wand; Vinewood and dragon heartstring, from a Hungarian Horntail, ten and three-quarter inches. When she held it up for the first time a wind picked up that was so strong it actually blew the shop's door open in addition to knocking several of the rejected wands onto the floor. The wandmaker just smiled like a giddy child and waved his own wand to right things before promising that Hermione's wand was 'uncommonly attached' to her.

When Ollivander had said that the wands chose their wielder, and he was just going to introduce Hermione to a wand that was technically already hers, Emma was bemused. But seeing the look of awe and adoration on her daughter's face as she gazed at the piece of wood in her hands was making the mother question. Sticks can't _really_ think for themselves, can they?

A game of rock-paper-scissors had Harry stepping up to receive his wand next. After seeing several reject Hermione he was prepared to have to try a few, but a half-hour later the others were looking a little worried and Ollivander was hurriedly pacing back and forth looking at wands on shelves before finally moving some boxes aside and grabbing a wand that was at the back of the shelf, previously out of view.

"Hmm. I wonder," The wandmaker mused as he turned around holding the box. Harry looked at the stack of rejected wands, more than a few _dozen_ of them, and prayed that this one would work. "Eleven inches, holly and phoenix feather. Nice and supple. Give this a wave."

Harry took the wand and felt a burning heat come out from the wand, he swished it and red and green sparks shot out of the end of it. Harry frowned as he held the wand. It made him feel _powerful_ when he held it. He wasn't sure he liked that though.

Harry looked up from his examination of the wand as Olivander explained that this wand's 'brother' had belonged to Voldemort, "I'm not sure I want it if it's connected to _him_, sir."

Ollivander tried to suggest that perhaps the wand wanted to atone for its brother's misdeeds. But Harry's objections were ultimately shut down by his aunt, of all people, who said that _she_ felt Ollivander's explanation was a fine one.

"After all," she'd said to finally convince him, "isn't that kind-of what you want to do by becoming a healer? Undo the pain and hurt that _he_ caused?"

When Dudley's turn came, it took even longer. An hour into the search for Dudley's wand Ollivander shouted, "I give up!" and went into the back, coming out a few moments later with a few larger boxes full of wands.

"These wands were made by wand makers in other parts of the world. Sometimes those who are steeped in wandlore will feel compelled to work wands in specific ways, or to send them to different places after they are made." The two families nodded to the wandmaker, "Normally nothing comes of this, I haven't sold one of these foreign wands in over twenty years, but sometimes a wizard's wand needs to be made of components that his local maker doesn't use. In such situations, the wand will have itself made elsewhere, and moved to where it needs to be. Personally, I only use unicorn hairs, dragon heartstrings, and rarely phoenix feathers for cores. _These_ wands use other magical cores, usually from creatures that do not appear in Britain at all. As well as foreign woods, which I rarely use as the Ministry has high tariffs on their import if brought in unworked."

Ollivander began pulling out more wands, adding their country of origin to his descriptions. Dudley still went through several wands before finding his match. In a too-large box he found a pair of wands; one pale white and one a deep reddish colour, but otherwise completely identical. Without prompting, Dudley took the white wand, which began emitting sparks of electricity from its tip until the boy swished it and unleashed a thunderclap.

"Rowan wood from right here in Britain, with a thunderbird feather core, eleven and three-quarter inches, flexible but sturdy, imported from America, these two were the last wands made by a native shaman before he retired." Ollivander began explaining, his excitement never wavering, "Wands of rowan are highly protective of their wielder's friends and family." He paused and looked squarely at Dudley.

"I would actually use thunderbird feathers in my own wands if they were native to Britain, they're as magically strong as phoenix feathers, but for one thing." Ollivander raised a single finger, "Thunderbird feather cores will react to danger before their wielder, sometimes casting magic at attacker preemptively and favouring spells often used by the wielder normally. In America they were traditionally wielded by chieftains and war leaders, and the wand tries to… 'protect the subordinates'... I suppose, when the situation requires. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the British Ministry puts the burden of proof on the owner of the wand to prove that anyone attacked by it was actually a threat, and this is often rather difficult. That wand will serve you well at Hogwarts, its protective nature is represented twice over since rowan also has such qualities, but I would be extra careful not to take it out with you in the muggle world as the wand won't care if someone is magical or not if they endanger you or your loved ones." Dudley nodded as he held his wand.

While Ollivander was explaining Dudley's wand to him, Harry was looking at the other wand in the case. _Chirp, Chirp_, there is was again… Harry was sure he could hear the wand making noises. He went to pick it up,

"Harry, you shouldn't pick things up without asking." Hermione admonished him.

"But… it's _chirping_ at me." The confused boy replied as he continued reaching out.

"It's what? That's quite impossible Mr.-" He stopped cold as Harry's fingers clasped the wand and raised it. The walls and shelves began vibrating softly, and the overhead lights dimmed to almost nothing for a moment before the moment passed.

The old wandmaker stared at Harry Potter, dumbfounded, "You're a parselmouth?" at Harry's shocked nod he elaborated, "I intended to send those two wands back to America at some point. They were brothers, despite being totally different, and didn't like being stored apart."

"The thunderbird feather wand I, of course, have no problem with," He continued, "But that one is California Redwood, a wood associated with spiritual maturity as well as good fortune, no issues there, but, with a powdered horned serpent horn for its core, from a serpent in Singapore that gave its horn willingly. Eleven and three-quarter inches and stylized exactly like its brother, similarly flexible, but much more spring in it. _Only_ a parselmouth could bond to it, due to the nature of it's core, and with that gift's negative press in our society I had felt that anyone that might have bonded to it would not have come to _me_ in the first place."

"Curiouser and curiouser," The old wandmaker said after a moment's reflection, "Mr. Potter. I now fully believe what I said earlier about your holly and phoenix feather wand. After that bonding display I believe we can say without a doubt that _this_ is your wand. Which means that the holly one is piggy-backing on you, so to speak. Perhaps it can sense some great destiny in you, holly is often a quester's wand. Mayhaps it really will bring you to undo some of what the wand's brother has wrought."

In the end, Ollivander sold Harry both wands, though he warned the boy that actively carrying multiple wands on your person was illegal under Ministry law and carried a huge fine without a special permit. He wouldn't be searched randomly or anything, but if he ever did find himself in trouble it would make things worse. Harry decided to follow some instructions he and Hermione had found in a book about wandless magic which instructed you on how to 'feel' your magic in your wand, he'd figure out which wand actually reacted better to him and keep the other one hidden unless he needed it. It didn't hurt to have a literal secret weapon when there might still be a dark lord out there after you.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

That night when Vernon got home from work he entered the house to the sight of Harry and Dudley reading a large book and alternately picking up and putting down _wands_.

"I supposed Dudley was a wizard after all?" He asked, rhetorically, as Petunia entered the room to welcome him.

"Yes, dear. A professor came to check on Harry today and confirmed that Dudley was a wizard too. Dudley also got an owl while we were in Diagon today. That way the boys and Hermione can keep in touch with us while they're away at school." Petunia returned brightly.

"Tina Polkiss then?"

"The professor confirmed she was a witch. She also helped me introduce the Polkiss's to magic. I'm going to be taking Angela and Tina to the Alley after the others are at Hogwarts." Vernon nodded to his wife as the boys continued doing, whatever they were doing, with their wands. Harry, he noticed, was switching between two different wands, while Dudley only had the one.

_This is normal. My life is normal._ Vernon reminded himself.


	6. Chapter 5: An Adventure Begins

An Adventure Begins

The Dursley family pulled into King's Cross Station with 5 minutes to spare. Harry and Dudley had wanted to make sure that they and Hermione could get a compartment together, but now they were just worried with making it to the train at all. Unfortunately, neither boy wanted to be the first one to risk crashing into a brick wall if they were wrong about the specific pillar they were supposed to use. They were rescued when Hermione came back out of the portal, looking for them, and the three friends went through together.

The group took one of the empty compartment towards the back of the train and waited for it to depart. Harry and Hermione intended to practice a few simple spells that didn't seem like they could be dangerous before they arrived at the school. It had been the hardest month of their lives, able to hold their wands but not use them. Ten minutes after the train left, they both had pages of parchment floating around at the direction of their wands, though both of them had trouble keeping them aloft.

It was a few more minutes before Dudley managed to get a quill to wobble unsteadily into the air. It fell down in seconds, and Dudley was disappointed until Hermione confided that she didn't feel like she could cast the spell again if she tried. It had tired her out in some way that felt odd, which reminded Dudley of his feeling when he and Harry and been figuring out how to feel their wands. Magic felt like a muscle, one that Dudley hadn't known he had even had until the day he picked up his wand; and muscles need to be exercised to get stronger.

Harry had opted to use his redwood wand after a month of testing each one. Whenever he picked up the holly wand he felt a rush of magical power, more than he felt he had normally, but it went away quickly. His redwood wand always just felt _right_ in his hand; and his magic felt electrically charged every time he picked it back up after holding a different wand, like it was welcoming him back. He kept the holly wand in a case at the bottom of his trunk, just in case, because he had found one instance where the surge of power he felt from the wand did not go away.

It had happened one day, last week, while he was meditating with the wands. Tina had innocently asked him if he wanted to try to get revenge on Voldemort if he was really alive. He told her that of course he didn't; but while Harry thought about it the holly wand in his hand had practically burned with magical power, and he quickly decided to keep the wand nearby in case he ever had to answer Tina's question with actions instead of words.

About a half-hour after the train began moving the door opened and a red-headed, freckled boy stuck his head in, looking at all three occupants before looking back to Harry, who looked back down at his book.

"Oi, my older brothers kicked me out of their compartment. All the other ones up there are full, can I sit here?" He asked.

Dudley stood up to shake the boy's hand and said, "Sure, hi. I'm Dudley, what's your name?" But the newcomer wasn't paying any attention to him, he was waiting for Harry to respond.

"I believe Dudley said you could come in. Might have even asked your name." The black haired boy asked icely after several seconds of silence and without looking up from the book on wandless magic that he and Hermione had been studying for the past month.

"I asked you though…" The redhead responded.

"Why? I'm clearly busy, and he was the one that responded to you. And do you really expect us to believe all the carriages ahead of this one were full?" Harry asked as he looked up. "Did you come into _this _compartment for a reason?" As he asked, he pulled his hair back to expose his scar.

"Blimey, it's real. You're really Harry Potter! Do you remember killing You-Know-Who? Will you tell me about it?" The boy said, mystified. Harry frowned and Dudley turned to damage control.

"He doesn't like talking about it. His parents died that night you know." The larger boy said as he stood up to bodily shift the newcomer back into the hall. When the redhead backed up, Dudley grabbed the door handle and said, "Maybe some other time, can I get your name though?"

"Its Ron Weasley. I'm sorry about that in there… I've got five older brothers, I just wanted to be able to tell them I'd met Harry Potter first. Finally beat them at something."

"Well then, go do that." Dudley encouraged, as he slowly slid the door closed and Ron broke into a grin. He had still met Harry Potter first, hadn't he?

"You didn't have to be so mean to him, Harry." Dudley said as he sat back down.

"I don't like that kind of attention Big D, it makes me feel weird." He responded. "Did you know that there were reporters hiding in Diagon Alley the whole week of my birthday, and the weeks before and after? Gringotts warned Aunt Petunia. That's why she didn't want to go with just us. Safety in numbers and all that. Plus, the press wouldn't be looking for me with other kids my age right?" Dudley nodded, he _hadn't_ known that. But now his cousin going by 'James' in the Alley made more sense.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Some time later the three were trying the levitation spell again. It was apparent now that the reason this spell wasn't taught first, despite being conceptually and practically easy, was that it took a lot of magic to maintain. Or something like that. Dudley was still the first to have his levitated object fall, but he was using a sheet of parchment like the others now. A few people had walked by the compartment, but no one else had tried to come in yet. Moments after Dudley's parchment fell again, the three friends heard a hissing sound, and Harry raised his wrist to his ear so that Najash could poke his head out of his jumper sleeve.

_~Harry, there is a toad outside the door. It tastes of fear and distress. But also of a wizard. Like it is a familiar.~ _The snake informed him, _~There are humans walking, they might step on it.~_

_~Thank you Najash.~ _Harry responded, then he looked at the other two who were watching intently, "He says there's a scared toad right outside the door that smells like someone's familiar. It's gonna get stepped on out there." He stood up to get it but Dudley beat him to it and stepped outside to grab the toad.

"Hey, do you guys wanna come with me and find this guy's owner? He's probably worried." Dudley asked.

"No thanks, Dudley, I wanted to see if I could figure out the next step in this book. Besides, whoever that toad belongs to is probably going down the train looking for him, they'll come by here eventually." Hermione said, Harry nodded his agreement.

Dudley frowned at the two, "Well, I'm gonna head _up_ the train then, and then we'll meet in the middle." He went up the train, stopping and knocking at any compartment that had people in it to ask if they had seen someone looking for a toad.

After travelling halfway up the train Dudley had come to the conclusion that green was the color of up-themselves jerks at Hogwarts. Every time he'd opened the door to a group of people in green trimmed robes, and it was always robes, never regular clothes, they would say something about a stench and mud and kick him out. Sometimes with magic, even. Dudley's wand crackled in his back pocket when that happened and he made a point to keep himself between these people and the dangerous piece of wood. Dudley was acutely aware of the fact that the only magical things his wand had ever done was levitate a quill and parchment… and shoot thunder and lightning… and that wouldn't be good on a train.

As he was musing on this he entered a compartment to find a pair of redheaded twins holding a short, pudgy boy at wandpoint. Dudley glared at the two older boys who quickly held their wands up by the middle to show they were harmless.

"Oi, mate." The first one started.

"No worries, he was." The second continued without a pause.

"Attacked by some Slytherins. We were-"

"-just getting him out of the jinx."

"Promise!" The two ended on the same beat. Dudley glanced past them at the other boy, who was nodding his head vigorously, the only motion he could make as his body appeared to be frozen in place.

"Alright, sorry to interrupt you guys. Slytherins are the berks in green right? They suck." Dudley chuckled as one of the twins turned back to the other boy and began waving his wand around. Dudley held up the toad he'd had tucked under his arm, "Do either of you guys know who's toad this is? My cousin found it right outside our compartment and I figured I'd look for his owner."

"Trevor!" the pudgy boy shouted as soon as he could move again. The toad croaked at him and he said, "Oh, thank you! I've been looking for him, that's how I ended up like that. Some fourth years, I think, thought toads were lame and jinxed me like that and left." As he spoke, Dudley held out Trevor and the boy took it. "Oh, why do you have to keep running off Trevor? I should have left you at home in the greenhouse!"

Dudley laughed at the boy talking to his pet like Harry did to Najash, "I'm Dudley, Dudley Dursley. Nice to meet you."

The twins took up introducing themselves first, "This is Fred."

"And that there's George." The second echoed.

Just as Dudley had nodded to them the first one started again, "Or am _I _George, and-"

"Maybe I'm Fred?"

"Or maybe, just maybe, we're-"

"Forge and Gred." the two said simultaneously as they shook Dudley's hands at the same and pointed at each other alternately with their unused hands, "We're off to meet with Lee, got some great pranks planned for this year. See you later firsties!" And the two let themselves out of the compartment.

"Are they always like that?" Dudley asked the other boy once they were alone. "Oh, sorry, I never caught your name. I'm Dudley." He held out his hand.

"I'm… Neville. Neville Longbottom. Yeah, they've always been like that." The boy responded as he took the hand with his free one. He recoiled under the sudden scrutiny he received from Dudley.

"Longbottom? Really?" Dudley asked with shock and recognition. Neville shrank under the question and Dudley's voice became consoling, "I'm sorry man, really. You probably get that a lot. When my mum told me what happened to your parents I felt sick. But I was kinda-not-really looking for you, just didn't know what you looked like." Dudley took a breath and a step back so that Neville could calm down.

"Why were you looking for me?" The timid boy asked.

"That cousin I mentioned? The one that found Trevor?" Dudley leaned in and lowered his voice as he continued, "It's Harry Potter." Dudley leaned back and waited for the expected surprise to wash over Neville and calm down again. "Did you know that your mum and his were friends in school?" Neville shook his head 'no', "Well, Harry was planning to go out looking for you at some point on the train ride because his mum's school notes talk about _your _mum a little. My mum, Harry's aunt, said that your mum was _supposed _to be Harry's godmother except that he was raised with us instead because of Dumbledore. So he was really keen to meet you. Do you want to come back and sit with us or did you already have somewhere?"

Neville was dumbfounded, he had been drilled all his life by his Gran about how great his father was. But he'd heard very little about his mother, just that she was 'perfect for your father', and here was Harry Potter's cousin saying that Harry knew about Neville through their mums?

"Uh, I put my stuff down towards the front of the train, but if you don't mind telling me where you guys are, I'll go get it and meet you."

"No way dude, I'll come with you." Dudley replied, opening the door again for his new friend who smiled and nodded.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Whoah! How are you doing that?" Neville exclaimed as soon as he entered the compartment. The two people, a boy and girl, were floating a textbook between them with their _bare hands_.

His outburst broke their concentration and the book toppled to the seat and then the floor. Harry glared over at the newcomer, whose gaze drifted to his scar for a moment before locking back onto his eyes. Trevor croaked under his arm and Harry looked at it.

"So you found his owner then? Starting a new gang in Hogwarts already, Big D?" Harry asked his cousin.

Dudley ginned, "Something like that."

"Hello, Mr Potter." Neville said, falling on formality to keep his nerves in check, "I'm N-Neville Longbottom. It's nice to meet you. Your… uh… cousin, said that our mums knew each other?" One of the only stories Neville's Gran had told him even nearly as often as the ones about his father were about how amazing and important Harry Potter was for defeating He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and here he was casually levitating a book _wandlessly_.

"Call me Harry," He replied as he softened his expression, stood up, and shook Neville's hand, "You've already met my cousin Dudley. This is our friend."

"Hermione Granger, just call me Hermione. It's nice to meet you." She took the boy's hand as well and the four of them sat down after Neville had stowed his trunk.

"Seriously though," Neville said once they had gotten situated, "How did you do that? Wandless magic is supposed to be super hard to do."

"Well," Harry said as he picked up the book they had been levitating when the two entered the compartment, "The book says it's mostly about concentration and hard work. We've been doing the wand meditation it talks about to learn how to feel our magic, it says the next step is to learn a spell with your wand then try it without. We all got a parchment levitating before your toad showed up outside, but while Dudley was gone Hermione and I tried to do it without our wands since the book we're following says that's the next step. It didn't work, but we had the idea to try it together, each of us levitating the same thing."

Dudley blinked in amazement as Harry continued, "It didn't work at first, it felt like we were fighting each other or something. Then we took a few minutes to get out magic on the same… I guess the same frequency? We held hands and focused on feeling each other's magic until we didn't feel like we were fighting each other anymore. Once we did that we tried again together and we were able to lift the whole book."

"That's really cool." Neville said, "Wandless magic is supposed to be the mark of a really powerful wizard. If you can do it this young, even with help, you must be strong."

"I don't think it's that, necessarily." Hermione corrected, "The book says that it's just a matter of mental discipline and focus. Dudley has been meditating like the book said too, he might be able to do it."

It turned out that Dudley _could_ wandlessly levitate things, with help. He was also a lot faster at 'synching up' with one of the others. After he and Harry had only needed thirty seconds to get the book floating Hermione had insisted on trying as well, to similarly quick results. Neville was amazed, this was nothing like what he had been told growing up. He definitely needed to ask if he could borrow that book later.

"Where did you find that?" Neville asked, indicating the text, "It seems unreal that everything I know about wandless magic is wrong and you guys found it out before your first year has even started."

"It's an English edition of a foreign book. Written relatively recently too." Hermione offered, "My mum found it in a section of Flourish and Blotts with books they were getting rid of and showed it to me. The storekeeper tried to convince me I didn't want it because it was 'full of nonsense'. But it looked alright, and he wasn't charging too much for it, so I bought it. We haven't read too far ahead because we couldn't cast spells at home, but the first couple chapters made sense."

"My aunt said it was probably because most English wizards don't like anything foreign, or new either. Apparently flying carpets are banned because the broomstick companies lobbied to make it happen so they'd have a monopoly on flying in the country. No British makers of flying carpets meant there was no one there to oppose." Harry supplied.

"But flying carpets are a risk to the Statute of Secrecy." Neville objected.

"Not in any of the dozens of countries where they're still legal. My aunt and uncle want to go to Greece on vacation _because _they're legal there. It's common for magical tourists to rent them to travel the countryside." Harry countered.

Hermione went for the finishing blow to Neville's defense, "According to _Magical Societies Around the World_, flying carpets are the prefered method of travel for families in countries like Egypt and India. Greece is the only European country they're legal in though." At Neville's blank stare she continued, "That's a book you could only get at Gringotts, none of the bookstores in Diagon Alley seemed to carry much information on countries other than Britain. If you ask, the goblins have a lot of literature related to travel and planning. A lot of it is fascinating."

Neville was drawn into a conversation about other magical cultures. He had never really ventured far outside his greenhouse unless dragged there by his Gran, but listening to Hermione talk about exotic locales made him wonder what kind of plants he could find if he went to those places himself.

The four passed the time talking about what their homes were like when they ran out of interesting plants and creatures to talk about, though Harry, Dudley, and Hermione were careful not to give anything that could help find them away. The door opened a few times, but most people just apologized and turned around when they saw four people already there.

When the trolley lady came by Harry got everyone some sweets, but when he found an Albus Dumbledore card in his chocolate frog he lost his sweet tooth and Neville learned something else that was interesting about Harry Potter. After all, wasn't Albus Dumbledore the one who had made sure Harry was taken care of after that Halloween?

When he thought about it for a moment, Neville realized that the three hadn't mentioned the headmaster even once the entire time they were talking about their home lives.

By previous agreement between the three friends, Najash was not mentioned and stayed quiet around Harry's arm. No need to scare Neville into thinking Harry was a dark wizard before they got a chance to know him. Najash agreed, reluctantly, though he thought the British opinion on Speakers was silly.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

After leaving King's Cross the adult Dursleys headed for the Leaky Cauldron, where they planned to meet the Polkiss's and Tina. Piers was in a pre-school study group, led by a teacher, to refresh on maths and grammar that Harry and Dudley had set up for their friends to 'see them off'. They met outside The Leaky Cauldron, and the five went through towards the Alley.

When Petunia pulled a golden coin out of her purse and pressed it against the correct brick to open the way to Diagon with practiced ease her husband eyed her strangely. He hadn't actually come to the Alley, even after finding out that Dudley was a wizard. He felt it was symbolic somehow, like he was truly abandoning his life before magic.

The moment the portal finished opening though, all three muggles gasped in astonishment. Amusingly, it was Petunia and Christina that dragged the other three through the Alley. Petunia was used to it by now, and Tina knew that they couldn't buy anything until they went to the bank first. The three adults-turned-children almost stumbled multiple times as they were guided down the Alley towards an immaculate white marble building.

Before the group got quite to Gringotts, Petunia spun around and stopped them. Then she began giving them a little prep-talk, "Before we continue, please understand that the magical bank is run by goblins. They are gruff, often rude, and they are very honorable. Goblins are soldiers first and bankers second, do not insult them. Don't worry though, as long as you are respectful, they will be as well."

The group could see the goblins standing at the top of the bank's stairs, armored and holding spears, and nodded to the woman, "One last thing," she continued, "If you smile around them, do it with your mouth closed. It's a little quirk of their culture that my Accounts Advisor told me about. It's basically like addressing someone in another country in their own language to break the ice."

"I was about to say this was too much, and ridiculous. But I can understand 'Accounts Advisor'." Mister Polkiss said as she finished. "Please forgive me if I put my foot in my mouth, this is still… hard." The man had seen more in the last five minutes to challenge his faith than the rest of his life combined. He was now about at the point where "it's the same as miracles" was a necessary belief for his own sanity.

Once the group got to a teller they were guided back into a conference room while Petunia explained some of the things she had told Emma Granger a few months ago. Griphook arrived right behind them, immediately brought out the paperwork for the Polkiss's, and informed Petunia that her 'message had been delivered', which confused her guests but she just promised that it was nothing and if anything happened that mattered to Tina they would know immediately.

Thirty minutes later, Ms. Peony Acacia had a fourth magical ward, and the group went into the Alley to purchase Professor Mcgonagall's recommended supplies for easing into the wizarding world.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

When Hermione guessed, based on the scenery rushing by the window, that the train was less than an hour from Hogwarts the boys stepped out of the compartment so she could change into her school robes, then did the same for them. While she was waiting she noticed a trio of wizards walking down the carriage aisle, with the rude, blonde boy that had insulted them at Madame Malkin's the day they got their wands.

"Sorry, sorry!" Hermione said as she let herself back into the cabin with her eyes closed and covered by a hand, "That boy that insulted Hagrid and my mum is coming down the aisle."

Harry and Dudley took her shoulders and guided her into a seat, "It's okay, we just finished changing anyways." Neville said as he closed up his trunk. "Who did you mean?"

But Neville's question answered itself as the door to the cabin flew open and the blonde boy let himself in, sneering at the occupants as two boys who were even bigger than Dudley, though more fat than muscle, followed him in.

"Is it true then?" The lead boy looked around the cabin as he spoke, "Some people are saying that Harry Potter is in this compartment." He looks again at Harry, "So it _is_ true. I should have known Dumbledore would have you fraternizing with riff-raff. Two mudbloods by the smell, and a squib blood traitor to boot."

"Come off it Malfoy." Neville said from the corner.

"Why are you here, Longbottom, are you even really a wizard?" The boy's, Malfoy's, two bookends laughed as he turned back to Harry, "I'm Draco Malfoy, heir of the Malfoy family. You'll find before too long that some families are of _better breeding_ than others, Potter. If you want to _be _something in the magical world, you should stop hanging around this lot. Come with me, and we might be able to make a proper Slytherin out of you. A cunning individual could use his 'Boy-Who-Lived' status to open any door he wanted for himself."

He finally looked closer at Hermione and Dudley, "Wait. _You!_" He jerked his head back to Harry, "It _is_ you. You were getting robes in Madame Malkin's when I was there this summer!" He was getting angrier as he began shouting, "Why didn't you say anything then? I was in that shop for almost five minutes and you never said a word! I mentioned Harry Potter that day! You must think you're so smart-"

"More _cunning _than you, I guess. Knowing when to keep my mouth shut." Harry interrupted.

"And really," Hermione added as she recalled learning some french last year before her family went there on vacation, "How can 'Blood Traitor' be an insult coming from you? Your name basically means 'I _will _betray you'." She laughed at Malfoy's furious expression, "Malfoy is french, it means '_Bad Faith_'."

"How dare you speak about my family, you mudblood!" The blonde drew his wand but dropped it in shock when a thunderclap temporarily, and painfully, deafened those in the cabin.

Dudley had quietly stood up and drawn his own wand as the arrogant boy kept talking, it had begun sparking under his robes since these three walked in. He now held it leveled at the aggressive trio as electricity sparked off the tip with an erratic crackling noise.

"I think it's time for you three to go. There are plenty of other cabins." He said calmly, as the boys eyes locked onto the sparks coming from his wand. Hedwig squawked behind him, angry at being woken up in such a violent manner.

"My father will hear of this!" The blonde shouted as he looked around for his missing wand.

When Draco slowly turned to pick up his wand Hermione held out her hand and said, "Allow me, Wingardium Leviosa." levitating it up into Malfoy's waiting grasp with a slow, deliberate, wandless motion. The blonde looked at her in abject terror as he and his friends backed out of the cabin and fled.

"Oh my gosh," Hermione gasped as Dudley closed the door, "I'm so glad he didn't hesitate to take it, I couldn't have held that wand another second."

"You guys are amazing. You have to teach me how to do that." Neville gushed.

"After I get some more chocolate, that made me feel a little better last time."

"Was that you or your wand, Dud's?" Harry asked, ignoring Neville for the moment. He was frowning at his cousin's wand, it was still crackling with electricity a little.

"Huh?" Neville asked.

"I'm pretty sure that was a little of both, it started crackling in my robes when those three came in. But I think_ I _convinced my wand to go with thunder rather than lightning." He grinned as Harry nodded and Neville stared at him, dumbfounded.

"You guys are amazing." He said, again.

"Hey Neville, what was he calling us when he was in here? I got called that a lot by other Slytherins while I was looking for you." Dudley asked once he'd sat back down.

"Uh… It's really not good, Dudley." Neville said, dejectedly. "'M-mudblood' is what bigots like Malfoy call muggleborns." Dudley and Hermione nodded. "'Blood Traitor' is what the old pureblood families call other purebloods who side with muggles. They say we're 'betraying magic' or something."

"But why did he call you a squib?" Harry asked, confused.

"Because when I was growing up I never did any accidental magic. Even my family thought I was a squib and kept trying to force me to do magic. It didn't work until one day Uncle Algie dropped me out of a window when I was seven. I bounced eight or nine times, all the way to the front gate. My Gran was so proud that day… she was so worried that I wouldn't be able to live up to the Longbottom name."

"That's horrible!" Harry exclaimed. "How could they want you to be a wizard _so much_ that they'd risk your life?"

"Well, my Gran has always pushed me to be more like my dad, that's why she wanted me to use his wand." Neville held up his wand, which was obviously old and well-used. "She hoped if I used this then some of his power would help me or something, I guess, but I still have trouble with even basic stuff. Most time when I try to cast something it just doesn't work." He intoned, "_Lumos_" and his wand shined with light for a moment before flickering out. Neville looked at the trio and shrugged.

"But, Neville, that is exactly the opposite of what using your father's wand would do." Hermione state, flabbergasted that Neville's Gran would do something like this to her grandson. "It's something Mister Ollivander said several times when we were getting our wands, 'The wand chooses the witch or wizard.' Harry, Dudley and I have been doing some of the meditation practices in that book."

"Well, mostly you and Harry." Dudley corrected lightheartedly.

"Yes, well. We noticed, at least when we were paying very close attention, that when we picked up each other's wands there was just a moment where we could each feel the 'wrong wand' fight us. Dudley and I sort of felt that 'resistance' the whole time we held each other's wands." Hermione continued, in full-information mode, "The book said that most people can't use just any wand; and the more alike two people are, the better they will be at using each other's."

Hermione realized too late that she was saying too much, Neville looked devastated as he asked, "So it means I'm not as good as my dad? I'm not like him?"

"It means you're your own man, Neville. Good at your own things." Dudley supplied, shooting Hermione with a 'can you please stop now?' look. Hermione looked away, embarrassed at her slip up.

Neville smiled wanly at Dudley's answer, "Yeah. I guess so."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The gruff man made his way down the magical alley in France. He couldn't remember its name at the time, he was too absorbed in his thoughts of the picture in his chest pocket. When he first got it he had been sorely tempted to contact his former mentor, but the picture had been accompanied by only two things: A date to appear in the french branch of Gringotts on the back, and a small note with two words in a woman's writing, "_**No Dumbledore**_". The man doubted that the meeting date of the first of September was just a coincidence.

He pulled out the picture and looked at it again. There, front and center, was his cub, Harry. He was the spitting image of James, except for his eyes, with a bushy-haired girl on the couch with him. They both were captured in the act of laughing. Another boy was on a chair beside them, and the three looked to be playing a muggle board game and having fun. A tall, thin woman with long, brownish-red hair watched them as she drank a cup of tea.

Gringotts in France was just as opulent as he remembered it being back in his home of England, though a casual look around the lobby told him that the goblins here were much more personable than those back home.

When he made it to a teller and was asked to state his business, the man realized he wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do here, "I'm sorry, I received a… summons I suppose, though not a standard one. I was to report on this day."

"And where is this 'summons', human? Gringotts is not often in the business of going against our _standard._" The teller responded, clearly he recognized an English accent. The man slowly reached into his chest pocket and withdrew the picture and the small note and handed them to the goblin. As soon as he touched the picture the teller could feel the goblin magic that had been placed on it, a simple trigger to summon paperwork.

Or so he thought_, _instead of transaction paperwork or a contract request something altogether different appeared in the magical drawer in his desk. Instructions to lead him to the back.

"Please come with me, sir." The goblin requested as he switched his sign from 'open' to 'closed', "There is a private room that will be made available to you." He opened the desk to allow the man to go back into the private area of the bank.

"Is everything alright?" The man was getting worried, when goblins politely requested things it was usually their last attempt before violence. "Meetings in private rooms for those who don't even have an account at your bank are hardly _standard_." He said, echoing the goblin's choice of word from before as he began to follow.

"Indeed, human. But I also said '_often_', implying exceptions." The goblin hadn't stopped to answer, so the two of them had continued walking and were now to the first room that could be seen after leaving the lobby, "I feel the need to thank you. This is the first _exception_ I've ever dealt with, and an exciting one at that. I'd appreciate it being the last as well though. There's about to be so much paperwork…" With that he opened the door, revealing a small meeting room large enough for three or four people to site comfortable with a table in the middle.

The man did as instructed, and a second, larger, goblin was waiting for him inside. The first goblin did not follow him, simply closing the door behind him as he departed. The larger goblin didn't speak at first, merely gestured for the man to sit as he pulled out several vials of potions and clicked his fingers to make a few folders of documents appear on the table.

"I'm sure you're wondering why you have been summoned here, and in the specific manner that you were." The goblin began.

"You could say that." The man responded, "Almost as much as I've wondered why I was specifically told not to contact Dumbledore, considering exactly _what_ I was sent as a summons. He's Harry's magical guardian, not me."

The goblin grinned, and couldn't help but show a little tooth when he did, "No, he is not." The man stood up in anger, "STOP! The boy is in no danger, has suffered no harm, and he has stayed exactly where Albus Dumbledore left him for the past ten years." He waited while the human in front of him composed himself, he was definitely billing Ms. Acacia extra for this.

"What's going on then?" The man asked.

The goblin grabbed one of the potion vials, the smallest, and placed it in front of the human, "This," he explained, "Is a goblin truth serum similar to _veritaserum_, the difference is that we goblins abhor the removal of one's will. Our truth serum compels truth, but doesn't compel _answers_." The man in front of him frowned but nodded.

"In order to continue, I will need for you to drink that potion, after which I will ask you exactly one question. The answer to that question will determine where we go from there."

"And the question?" He asked the goblin.

"'Have you contacted Albus Dumbledore since receiving the picture of Harry playing games?'"

The man was stunned, what was going on that the goblins were using truth serum to keep _Dumbledore_ out of Harry Potter's business? "Alright." He said.

After he had answered the question with a simple "No." and had been given the antidote to the truth serum he took a sip of offered water to clear his throat and asked again, "What's going on then?"

"To start a story where it begins, Heir Potter's magical guardian was changed in January to a close family member, who has had an integral role in raising the boy since his parents' untimely passing. This person took action when it came to their attention that certain… liberties, had been taken with Heir Potter's business here at Gringotts." The goblin stopped and pulled out two folders and placed them in front of his guest, who raised an eyebrow.

"Allow me to finally introduce myself. I am Assistant Account Manager Daggernail of the Potter accounts." He gave a small bow from his seat, "I have been authorized by the Potter Heir's magical guardian to share those documents with you, though they cannot leave this room. The potions are a calming drought. Due to the nature of your relationship with Heir Potter's late family, I highly suggest you drink one before beginning. There are several more if you need them as well."

The man was staggered beyond belief. This was a level of courtesy among the goblins that could _only_ be bought, what was going on?

"Before you begin to worry while reading, the costs for today have been covered directly by the magical guardian without anything being tied to the Potter accounts. The need to specify that will become apparent soon. I shall leave you to peruse that information for the next ten minutes while I contact my superior." The goblin waited for the man to nod before bowing and backing out of the room.

"Don't forget the calming drought." He said as he departed, "Simply put your head out the door if you need anything while you're here. I shall return soon, Mister Lupin."

O0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Unfortunately for the four first years, Dudley's thunderclap drew the attention of the students in every other cabin in the carriage, though they waited a few minutes before daring to venture out into the corridor. This led to several of their fellow students congratulating them on taking Malfoy's group down a peg. Apparently he acted that way out-of-school too, and many of the pureblood students whose parents were political had to put up with him at social functions because his father was important.

None too soon, the train arrived at Hogsmeade Station and the students began to disembark. Before they left, Dudley asked Neville if they were supposed to wear their pointed hats; he replied that they were only required for formal events, most older students wore them when they learned the charms to make them protect a wizard from rain or weather. Dudley happily put the hat back in the trunk, but wasn't thrilled to leave Hedwig on the train until Neville assured him that she would be taken to the school owlery.

When they made it off the platform they saw Hagrid standing to the side with his umbrella calling for the first years to gather around him. The three friends said "hello" to the big man as they congregated and were led to a series of boats. They stayed together with Neville, which proved fortuitous when Hagrid said "four to a boat" as he was there to stop the annoying redhead when he tried to snag the last spot.

While crossing the lake in the boats a wave of magic washed over them, Neville didn't seem to notice much but Harry and the others got shivers. Over the splashing of the water they heard a syllabant hissing from under Harry's robes. He tried to keep it quiet, but Neville heard it and looked at him curious.

"What was that?"

"Uh." Harry wasn't sure how to answer that. He knew that snakes were generally seen as a mark of being a dark wizard in England, but Harry didn't want to keep Najash hidden the _whole _time he was at Hogwarts. Just until he had gotten settled in.

"If you can keep this a secret for at least a while," Harry leaned in and extended his hand, allowing Najash to poke his head out, "This is Najash. He was reacting to crossing the wards, I think." On seeing Neville's complexion paling Harry tried a new tactic, "It was Najash that found Trevor, you know. He smelled him outside the cabin and warned us he was scared."

"Um. Uh, Thank you, Najash?" The boy said, confusedly. "Wait, what do you mean, 'warned us'. Snakes can't talk, Harry."

"They can for me." He responded confidently, then hissed at Najash, _~Little friend, you are going to get us in trouble making noises. If you are people's first impression of me, then they will be afraid.~_

_~I understand, Speaker. I was overwhelmed by the magic of this place. It is an ancient nest, powerful.~ _With that the snake retreated under Harry's robes.

"I'm not sure if you know-" Neville tried to begin.

"I do, Hermione told me when we met." Harry said dismissively, "I think it's silly, but I understand I need to kind of hide it while I'm here." He smirked as he remembered that first encounter between Hermione and Najash, "Unless I'm put into Slytherin."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**The Previous December**

With great willpower, Hermione put her hand down and stepped into Harry Potter's bedroom. It was much more ordinary than she was expecting, for some reason. Though there were several books that were obviously magical open on the floor and a potions set that had been hastily pulled out of his closet.

But her attention was soon fixed back onto Harry himself. He was sitting on his bed, cross legged and holding a snake that was coiled around his wrist and bobbing its head back and forth as it hissed at him. When he hissed back she almost shrieked again, almost.

"Harry!" She exclaimed, "Talking to snakes is dark magic! It's something You-Know-Who was famous for!"

"Huh?" He looked up at her, confused, "It's just a language, right? How can that be light or dark? That's just ridiculous, isn't it?"

That brought Hermione up short. Why was parseltongue itself considered dark? Hermione found she couldn't think of any book actually saying why, just that it was, and then listing all the dark wizards who were parselmouths.

"I…" She wasn't very good at questioning the knowledge she'd learned in books, "I'm not sure. But I've read a few books on magical history and they all agree that talking to snakes means that you're going to be a dark wizard. There are lots of dark lords who were parselmouths that killed people with poison and snakes."

"Well, Najash isn't poisonous."

"Venomous." Hermione corrected before covering her mouth in shock. _Oh my gosh, I just corrected Harry Potter_, she thought to herself, _he's going to hate me_!

"Right, he's not venomous." Harry smiled, then frowned, "I kinda feel bad now that I realize I never looked up what kind of snake he actually is, but he says that where he comes from his kind hunts poi-_venomous_ snakes. He even saved my aunt from one last summer!" Harry smiled as he pet Najash on the head.

A snake that hunted venomous snakes? And Harry had said that 'Najash' wanted to help him become a healer too? That sounded like the opposite of everything she'd read about parselmouths.

Hermione steeled her nerves as she watched the boy in front of her pet his snake while waiting for her to respond. This was her chance to have a friend at Hogwarts before she even got there, though!

"I could look in an encyclopedia and see if I can find out what kind of snake he is, if you want?" Harry's nod, and returned smile, bolstered her courage, "Can I pet him too? As long as you hold him?"

Harry laughed as he stood up from his bed. It was great to be able to share this part of his life with someone that wasn't family.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Neville needed little convincing after confirming that Najash wasn't dangerous, except apparently to other snakes and the occasional rodent or lizard, to accept that it was just another amazing thing about Harry Potter. What other parselmouth would have a venomless, snake-killing snake as his familiar? They didn't have much time left on the boat after Harry had related the stories of Najash saving his Aunt Petunia not once, but twice in the last five years.

Leaving the boats behind and entering the castle proper brought with it an unwelcome side event. The return of the annoying redhead, Ron Weasley.

"Oi, why are you okay hanging out with him but not me, huh?" He asked Harry, pointing into Neville's face as he did.

"Maybe because he hasn't been rude every time he's opened his mouth, Weasley." Harry responded angrily, "What is your obsession with me anyways? It's not like we've met before or something."

"But, we're gonna be in Gryffindor together! I just wanted to get to know you first!" The boy whined.

"Why do you think we'll be in the same house?" Harry asked.

"'Cause both of your parents were in Gryffindor, or course you will be! Just like how all my brothers are in Gryffindor, just like my parents back like five generations." He retorted.

"So everyone in a family tends to go to the same house? Interesting. There's nothing about that in _Hogwarts: A History_." Hermione interjected.

"That's because it's so _obvious_. But then, I suppose a mudblood can't be expected to understand even the simplest of arcane mysteries." Malfoy said from the other side of the hall the first years were congregated in.

The friends didn't get to find out exactly _what_ was obvious, as Professor Mcgonagall emerged from the large double doors to begin explaining about the houses and how points and detentions would work. While she was talking Harry and Dudley were silently agreeing that they hoped they didn't somehow end up in the same house as Malfoy. That would probably be a miserable seven years. Towards the end of her speech, a group of ghosts descended through the floor and waved to the new students on their way to the hall, causing a minor panic particularly among the muggleborn.

Walking through the door into the great hall and looking at the enchanted ceiling was a breathtaking sight, at least until Hermione had to quote _Hogwarts: A History_ to anyone who could hear her as she described the things they were seeing.

_I hope she gets over that again soon. _Harry thought to himself as he saw another unsorted first year grimace at Hermione when she turned her back.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Mr. Lupin, I apologize for being slightly late." Daggernail said as he let himself back into the room after fifteen minutes and looked at the wizard. His face was composed even as he breathed deeply to keep himself calm, _four _empty potion bottles were on the table.

"That's alright." he responded quietly, his rage barely in-check. He looked up at the goblin as he sat down, "I need good news after that. Tell me about this new magical guardian. Who are they? I wasn't aware James had any more family left. The closest thing he had was…" He choked at the memory.

"Mr. Black, yes. But Heir Potter had more than one parent did he not?" The goblin smiled a toothless smile at the wizard's comprehension. "Ms. Peony Acacia is a squib in good standing with Gringotts bank. She is the one who has taken over Heir Potter's guardianship after she discovered the documents you were just shown, and more."

"There was more?" He asked in disbelief. He had just seen proof that Dumbledore had taken over two hundred thousand galleons of Harry's money, basically emptying the boy's trust vault seven of the nine years he had control of it, almost all to pay for political maneuvers. Not all of which were what Remus would have thought his mentor to be involved in, including a law that increased restrictions on werewolves' employment only a year after the war. _Albus was _behind_ that? _Remus thought to himself, and there was_ more?_

"I assume Ms. Acacia contacted me because she needs something?" He inquired, "What does she need? I'll do anything for Harry." Seeing that picture, with Harry and his friends playing and laughing had reinvigorated his desire to see his best friends' son. A desire that he had spent ten years trying to quash.

"She needs you back in England, Mr. Lupin. While I was out minute ago I took the liberty of checking to see if you had any obligations on this side of the channel. When I saw that you did not, I booked you passage on the ferry for tomorrow. Ms. Acacia will be excited to meet you, likely the day after that."

The goblin had one last thing to say, "I don't think it should need saying that you are not to contact Albus Dumbledore during that time, and your silence will be verified in Britain."

"That won't be a problem. Not at all, and I look forward to meeting Ms. Acacia in person. Was that her in the photo?"

"That was Petunia Dursley, formerly Evans. The late Lady Potter's older sister. It is she who has raised Heir Potter since his parents' deaths." Remus nodded to the goblin.

"I look forward to meeting, and thanking, her as well then. When does my ferry leave?" Remus' anger had been surprisingly easy to push to the back of his mind, the calming droughts must have finally started working, and now he had a clear purpose in mind. It had become a foreign feeling, to be motivated, and he savoured it.


	7. Chapter 6: The Sorting

**AN:** The second thing the Sorting Hat says to Harry is taken verbatim from the original Philosophers Stone, so obviously I don't own Harry Potter.

The Sorting

"Dursley, Dudley." The stern looking witch called from her position at the front of the hall. His cousin clapped him on the back and Dudley walked up to the stool on which sat the _talking, singing hat_ that was going to determine what house he went to.

"It's good to see you again, Mr. Dursley." He nodded back but kept a wary eye on the Sorting Hat, "Don't worry, I promise it doesn't hurt." She smiled at him and gestured for him to sit. He sat down and as soon as the black hat dropped on his head Dudley heard its voice in his mind.

_"What have we here?"_

_ "Are you the Sorting Hat?" _He asked in his mind.

_"Indeed, I see into your mind and your personality and use that information to decide where you should go. Where you will thrive. You seem to know more about the magical world than most muggleborn. What do you know of the Houses?"_

_ "Harry's parents were both in Gryffindor."_

_ "But do you know what that means?" _The Hat asked.

_"Uh."_ Dudley replied, "_Hermione said there were four Houses and each one has a certain kind of person in it. I don't want to be a Slytherin. All the ones I met were jerks."_

_ "It takes all types, Mr. Dursley. There _are_ four houses. Each one is built around a core principle. I see courage in you, the courage to stand up for those too weak to do so for themselves. Certainly courage for Gryffindor, the house of bravery. But I don't quite think that it is your most defining trait."_

_ "It isn't?" Dudley asked, a little disappointed._

"_How hard did you work to lose your weight and control your eating? Also, when you decided to change your life, you didn't just work on your body but your mind as well. How many nights did you spend with your cousin, studying math and working on your handwriting?"_

"_A lot. It was hard, I'm not good at that stuff. You aren't going to put me in the smart house are you?" _

" _Ah ha ha ha," The Hat laughed in his mind, "no Mr. Dursley. Though there is, as you say, a 'smart house' in Ravenclaw, that is not what I meant. They are not simply intelligent, but those who _value _intelligence and learning for their own sake."_

"_That's definitely not me."_ Dudley let out a quiet chuckle.

"_Maybe not, your defining trait is your drive and your willingness to work hard. And that drive is coupled closely with your sense of _loyalty_. Which means the House you are destined for is-"_

"Hufflepuff!" The Hat shouted to much applause. Dudley stood up and went to where the previous 'Hufflepuffs' had gone with a smile on his face. Being sorted by hard work and loyalty over courage wasn't bad at all in his book. He turned and waved to Harry and Hermione, who waved back, as he sat down, and the sorting continued.

Dudley watched as more students were sorted, he noticed that the green-robed Slytherins never clapped unless someone was sorted into their own house and frowned when he noticed that some people in the other houses didn't clap when someone was sorted into Slytherin. He made a point to clap for everyone, no matter how much like a snob they looked. When 'Finch-Fletchley, Justin' was called and sorted into Hufflepuff as well, Dudley waved him to the seat beside him.

"Hello there." Justin said as he shook Dudley's hand sat down, "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"I'm Dudley, Dudley Dursley. My dad's a salesman for Grunnings. He sold your grandfather's company some drills last year. I was surprised to hear your name when it was called. Is your family magical?"

"No, I'm the first. I was originally going to Eton, but I convinced my mother to let me give this a try. I couldn't imagine going anywhere else now though. You?"

"First on my side of the family, my aunt was a witch, but my mum wasn't. My dad's side doesn't have any magic in it." Dudley looked back up to the front of the hall as 'Granger, Hermione' was called, "Oh, sorry. That's one of my friends, I want to see her sorted."

_"Wow, this is so fascinating!" _Hermione thought back to the Hat after it had spoken to her.

_"I'm not used to so many muggleborn who are already comfortable with magic. It's quite refreshing… and you have already seen a bit of the prejudice in magical society, and seek to change it. That's quite the ambition, with intellect to match, Miss Granger. Worthy of Slytherin like no muggleborn before you."_

_ "Absolutely not!" _Hermione shouted into her mind, _"I know about that House's history, don't you dare put me there! There's no way I wouldn't hex one or all of my dorm mates within a week. Why wouldn't you put me in Ravenclaw?"_

_ "Ha ha! That fire, and immutable sense of justice, tells me I was wrong about Slytherin, Miss. But you would be stifled in Ravenclaw! You belong in-"_

"Gryffindor!" The Hat shouted.

Dudley clapped for his friend and waved when she looked his way, "I thought Ravenclaw was the smart house? Hermione's the smartest person I know." he asked an older boy a couple seats down after she'd sat down.

"Jones, Megan."

"Hufflepuff!" _clap, clap, clap_.

"Technically, but not _everyone _who's smart goes Ravenclaw." The boy chuckled at Dudley's face when realized what he'd implied, "Cedric Diggory." He introduced himself, "It's pretty strange for muggleborn to know each other before coming to Hogwarts. Pretty cool that you know two already."

"Longbottom, Neville."

Cedric was surprised when Dudley again apologized and zeroed in on the sorting again, "Do you know Longbottom too?" He asked the muggleborn.

"Yeah, uh. We met on the train. He lost his pet toad and I found and returned him." Dudley responded without fully turning around. Cedric smiled, this kid would fit in well in Hufflepuff, making friends that easily.

_"And where should I put you Mr. Longbottom." _The Sorting Hat spoke into Neville's mind.

_ "I don't know. I'm not very smart, or brave. I guess you could just put me in Hufflepuff…"_

_ "Why would you say that? Do you consider hard work and loyalty your greatest strengths?" _The Hat paused for a minute as it searched through Neville's memories… _"The House of the meek? That's what you think of Hufflepuff?"_

_ "I did, my Gran told me that only Gryffindor would do. She talked down the other three Houses," _The boy confessed, _"but then you sorted Dudley into Hufflepuff. My Gran must be wrong or something, cause he's really really strong."_

_ "Yes, but in your case, there is somewhere else you should go. Gryffindor isn't just for those who are fearless, but also for those who strive to _conquer _their fears. Yes, you will do well there if you allow yourself to grow."_

"Gryffindor!" The Hat shouted, the Hall applauded and Neville hurried to sit beside Hermione who, much to his embarrassment, gave him a big hug as he sat down.

Several other students were sorted without much incident before Mcgonagall called, "Potter, Harry."

"_That's _Harry Potter?"

"He's shorter than I expected."

"I heard he challenged Draco Malfoy to a duel on the train."

There was much whispering amongst the student body as Harry sat on the stool and the Hat was lowered over his head. Some of them weren't bothering to whisper, and Harry heard several mentions of what happened with Malfoy on the train but none included Dudley.

_"Mr. Potter, quite a few of your yearmates' thoughts have been of you while I sorted them, and you do not disappoint."_

_ "What does that mean?"_

_ "__Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, my goodness, yes, and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... So where shall I put you?"_

_ "Not Slytherin!"_

_ "Not Slytherin? With a snake familiar wrapped around your arm? You could do so much there, you know. You seek to bring medicine to the magical world and potions to the muggle, that will require the kind of connections Slytherin can give you."_

_ "Not Slytherin! Nothing to make me like _him_."_

_ "If you're sure, then, better be-"_

"Gryffindor!" The Hat bellowed to enormous applause from the Hall. Dudley noted that the redheaded twins he met on the train, who were apparently Gryffindors, were standing on their table chanting "We got Potter!"

"Harry's gonna hate that." Dudley muttered as he watched the over-the-top antics of the red and gold table.

Cedric had asked to switch seats to be next to the interesting first year, so he heard him, "How do you know? He could like it, some people were worried Harry Potter would be big headed about his fame, you know."

"He isn't. He thinks it's dumb. We think his mum and dad must have tricked Voldemort that night and beat him somehow, there's no way Harry did it as a baby." He immediately regretted not speaking more quietly, the whole table had tuned into the conversation.

Cedric and the others around them flinched at Dudley's use of the dark lord's name, "Geeze, man." Cedric said after he recovered, "You talk like you're best friends with him or something."

_Oh well_, Dudley thought to himself, he shrugged what he hoped was confidently, "He's my cousin. We grew up together."

"But…" Cedric gaped at him, in the silence Dudley was hit by whispered questions from all the nearby students, trying to learn about the enigmatic Harry Potter, and the sorting continued. Dudley did his best to keep the conversation from straying into things that were too close to home and eventually the other Hufflepuffs changed to asking about _him_, which he was fine with. Though he was disappointed that none of them seemed interested in trying football.

Meanwhile, Harry had made his way to the Gryffindor table where Hermione had moved over to allow him to sit between her and Neville and given him a hug as well. After they were done chanting the redhead twins edged over.

"Hey Neville, when did you and Potter meet?" The nearer twin asked.

"Remember the guy that found Trevor for me? When you guys were getting me out of that hex?"

"What?" Harry asked angrily, his annoyance at the twins temporarily forgotten.

"Yeah mate, some Slytherins put him in a body-bind on the train." The second twin responded to Harry as the first twin answered Neville simultaneously.

"Yeah mate, some luck that he showed up right as we were getting you out."

"That was Harry's cousin Dudley." Neville finished, to the twin's astonishment, then he turned to Harry, "These are the Weasley twins, Fred and George. They're pretty bad pranksters, but they're still good guys. I live sort of close to them." The two twins gave mock bows at their introduction and turned to continue watching the sorting.

Harry took the opportunity to look up at the head table and examine the teachers he saw there. He already knew that Professor Mcgonagall was Gryffindor's Head of House, and he saw Hagrid sitting on one end of the long table who waved and smiled to him. In the center of the table sat Headmaster Dumbledore on a giant chair, practically a throne, gilded in brightly shining gold. His gaze continued to the other end of the table where a sour-looking man who desperately needed a hair degreaser sat next to a man in a turban, of all things. After a moment looking in that direction, Harry felt a stabbing pain in his scar.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Hermione asked, having seen him wince.

"Its nothing, just a sudden headache." Hermione frowned at his answer, his hand was rubbing directly on his famous scar…

"Weasley, Ronald."

"This is our brother." The twins said together.

"Oh great…" Harry moaned when he saw the boy walking confidently up to the Hat on the stool.

"What does that mean?" Fred asked testily.

"We didn't hit it off well on the train." Harry said as he watched Ron Weasley under the Hat.

"It was hard to like him when he kept trying to talk around his feet." Hermione added.

_"Oh my, another Weasley. How odd, you aren't defined by the same traits as your brothers… I guess this is the result of having so many siblings." _The Hat's voice was annoyingly loud in Ron's head.

_ "What do you mean?"  
_

_ "Your chief drive is to surpass your brothers, isn't it? However you have to do that as long as it isn't dark?"_

_ "Well, yeah… I guess. I'm not sure I'd put it _that _way. Aren't you going to put me in Gryffindor? How can I be Potter's friend otherwise?"_

_ "You will never pass your brothers that way, Mister Weasley. May I place you where you have a chance to actually do so?"_

_ "Well… yeah. If you see some hidden talent to pass my brothers, sure."_

_ "Wonderful!"_

"Slytherin! The Hat shouted, to complete, stunned, silence.

"Wait, what?" Ron asked as Mcgonagall took the Sorting Hat off his head.

"Well, Mr. Weasley." The Professor said as she watched the magic of the sorting trim his robes in green and silver, "Please join your housemates."

Ron walked slowly to the Slytherin table, feeling as though it were a gallows march. All eyes were on him as he sat down on the end. Well, almost all eyes, he looked up to his brothers, but found all three of them were distinctly avoiding looking in his direction.

"Well, I never would have thought a _Weasley_ would ever make it into the mighty house of Slytherin." Draco Malfoy commented, loud enough for Ron to hear. He did his best to ignore it, but it wasn't going to be easy. He was hungry.

"I guess he must have some cunning, to have hidden it in a house of blood traitors." He continued. "Maybe he's trying to fix his family's reputation?" Ron's face burned red and he looked away.

_What have I gotten myself into?_ He thought to himself.

"Potter, what the hell?" One of the twins, Harry thought it was George, asked him.

"Yeah mate, what did he do to earn himself a place in _Slytherin_? Our family has been Gryffindors for generations." Fred added.

"I wonder where we went wrong?" His twin said wistfully.

"No idea, but I'm definitely glad I'm not having to share a room with him." Harry responded as the last person, 'Zabini, Blaise,' was sorted into Slytherin. "First thing he did when he walked into our cabin on the train was lie about there being no room in any other cabins."

Headmaster Dumbledore's short speech, if you can call four words of nonsense a 'speech', just left the Hall with a surreal feeling, and like the man was finally losing the last of his marbles. The food magically filling the tables and wafting incredible smells throughout the student body brought them back to reality, though. Harry and Hermione found the spread quite diverse and were pleasantly surprised to find that the goblets were filled with pumpkin juice, which they found they liked.

As he was stuffing his plate Harry had a thought and looked up to see what Dudley was doing. His cousin had battled with his weight most of his life, and this much food this good would see him gaining a lot of it back soon. Especially since Harry had learned from Neville on the train that wizards only played one sport, on brooms. His cousin caught his eye and waved. Harry waved back and glanced down at his plate, Dudley nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

Dudley was enjoying the feast as well. He knew that it wouldn't do to just load up everything he wanted on his plate, so he carefully took small portions of several different dishes. No reason he couldn't _try _everything was there?

While they ate, Dudley and Justin introduced themselves to the other first years that were near them while Cedric answered questions about how the school worked. Susan Bones and Ernest Call-Me-Ernie Macmillan were from old wizarding families and were the most persistent in asking questions about Harry Potter; while Susan's friend Hannah was quieter and asked the two muggleborn about their non magical activities. She told them that her mother was a muggleborn, but she had been raised wholy magical like her father.

Dudley had almost decided that the magical world wasn't as backwards as his mum had told him when Ernie asked how muggles shrank people to fit into a 'tellis-vision' with just 'elketrikety' and no magic. While Dudley was able to keep from laughing openly, Justin was not.

"What's so funny then?" Ernie asked indignantly.

"_'Electricity'_, it's 'electricity', and 'television'." Dudley said as he tried not to choke on his roast beef. "Television doesn't have tiny, shrunk-down people in it either." He had to cover his mouth at that point.

"Eh? Then how does it work?" Ernie asked, growing angry as Dudley slowly lost his composure.

"I'm interested in that too." Cedric added, trying to diffuse the younger boy's ire, "I'm starting Muggle Studies, it's an elective you can take beginning in third year, but I read ahead in the course book and I didn't see anything about them in it. Or Eh-lick-tre-city?" He sounded out, "It's not covered in the book either."

"It's…uh…" Justin started and realized he wasn't actually sure _how _to explain television to someone that couldn't pronounce 'electricity.'

Dudley came to his rescue, "It's like the pictures in the _Daily Prophet_." He said, slowly piecing his description together while remembering looking at the publication with his mum and Harry some this past year. There was a lot of speculation and hype-building for Harry coming out into public in those pages recently.

"Those moving pictures that show a loop of time? Television is like that. Except instead of printing it on paper, a company sends the moving picture directly to the television screen using electricity, and it comes with sound, so think like an entire play that's been put into a moving picture. The company that owns the recordings posts a schedule so people can make sure to see the ones they like."

"Wow. Muggles can do that? That beats the Wizard Wireless hands down." Cedric responded.

"That's the magical radio." Hannah supplied, seeing Dudley's confusion at the term. "They play music, and cover important quidditch games. Every now and then there'll be something about the news on it, but the _Prophet _likes to keep that to themselves."

The Hufflepuffs continued trading information about their respective worlds, and Cedric Diggory was growing to worry that his Muggle Studies class was going to be a joke. He intended to ask Professor Burbage why she didn't have 'television' and 'aeroplanes' in the class textbook. If muggles could pile a hundred or more at a time into a metal ship and fly across the world as high as dragons fly, why didn't wizards talk about that more often?

When dessert replaced the dinner spread on the tables Dudley leaned over to Cedric and asked a question he'd been waiting on since he sat down.

"Hey, who up there is our head of house? My magical guardian gave me a letter to give to them once I was sorted. Will they introduce themselves tonight?"

"Oh, our head is Professor Sprout, she's up there, the bigger woman up there next to Professor Flitwick, he's the short one." He pointed her out, "She's also the professor of herbology, and keeps the school greenhouses."

"Harry and Neville will like that class, I bet." Dudley returned, "Does she introduce herself, first night?"

"Yeah, she has the prefects take the new students to the dorm and get them attuned to the door. Then comes in after we've shown everyone their room and explains the house rules. You can give it to her then."

"Sounds good." Dudley went back to his slice of apple pie.

"Wait. Why would Dumbledore need to send Professor Sprout a letter through you? Why couldn't he just talk to her himself?" Cedric asked, finally realizing the implications of the question.

"He's not my magical guardian though." Dudley said between bites. He then slipped into the response all three of them had rehearsed before Cedric could ask more questions, "Our magical guardian is a squib who's related to the Potters. My mum raised the two of us mostly magic free, and the headmaster was a smokescreen. Neither of us have even met the guy."

The magically raised at the table, who were holding out that maybe Dumbledore at least had a hand in raising The-Boy-Who-Lived, were astounded at that fact, Harry Potter really _was _raised totally by muggles?

"That makes sense, I guess." Cedric conceded.

"Blimey, why all the cloak-and-dagger then?" Justin asked his new friend.

"My cousin's famous because a dark lord named Voldemort-" all the magically raised again flinched at the name and Dudley looked at the girls, who were shaking in fear, "What?"

"You don't say _his_ name, Mr. Dursley. It's… not good." Cedric answered since Susan and Hannah were still too shocked to do so. "The Headmaster is pretty much the only one who says his name, and my dad says he thinks Dumbledore just does it to put everyone else on edge."

"So what, do you call him those long, dumb names the papers called him?" Dudley asked. "What's the difference in one fake name or another?" The others stared at him, dumbly, "Hermione and her mum know a little french. 'Vol de Mort' apparently means 'Flight from Death'. That's not a name, it's what someone calls themself when they want to be scary but have a name like 'Josh'."

"I'm not quite sure what you're talking about," Justin offered, "but my family does a lot of business overseas. That is what that means. 'Flight from Death,' I mean." None of the magically raised had a proper answer to that but Dudley was again asked to not say the name, You-Know-Who would suffice. Dudley just groaned and shook his head, but promised to avoid using the name.

He was able to finish giving an abbreviated version of Halloween 'eighty-one to Justin before the tables were cleared and Dumbledore again stood to say some words. Dudley and the other first years were rather put-out by his promise of a 'painful death' on the third floor.

"This is a school right? I didn't get on the wrong train?" Dudley asked, jokingly. The rest laughed nervously as the prefects led them to the Hufflepuff dorms.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

While Harry was digging into a treacle tart Hermione asked the twins who a prefect was for Gryffindor, the twins had glumly said that their older brother 'Perfect Percy' was a prefect, and pointed him out.

"Hello Mr. Weasley." She said to the fifth year as she extended her hand after walking over, "I'm Hermione Granger."

"Hello, Miss. Can I help you." Percy asked as he looked up from his pie.

"Yes, actually I had a question and your brothers told me you were a prefect?" At the boy's nod she continued, "Well, my guardian sent me with a letter for my head of house. Will Professor Mcgonagall introduce herself to the first years? It's important."

"Well, not normally. But if it's important, I suppose I could go up and ask if she could come and speak to you before you go to the dorms?"

"That will work, thank you. I'm sitting over there by Harry and Neville." Hermione smiled and turned to walk away.

"Could I ask you a couple questions Miss Granger?" The redhead asked before she left. When she stopped and nodded 'mhmm' he asked, "Please forgive me if this question seems rude but, how are you so familiar with the heirs of two important families? Being a muggleborn and all?" He continued before she could answer, "Also, do you think Mr. Potter knows anything about my brother Ronald being sorted into Slytherin? He was bragging that he'd made friends with him on the train but didn't have anything to actually _say_ about him, so I assumed he was making up stories."

"Well, I only met Neville on the train. But I met Harry last Christmas at a business dinner between my parents and his uncle." She answered brightly, then her tone soured, "As for your brother. He came into our cabin on the train and you would think he was _trying_ to make Harry angry, and Harry doesn't think when he's angry. Dudley, Harry's cousin, got your brother to leave the cabin before he started a fight."

"If I may, what did Ronald say?"

"Among other things, he asked Harry if he remembered the night Voldemort killed his parents. I wanted to kick him in the shin but Dudley had already moved him." Hermione's face flushed with her own anger as she remembered the incident.

"Oh my. Well, at least I know. Congratulations on your sorting, Miss Granger. The feast will be over in about ten minutes, so in five I will speak to Professor Mcgonagall for you." Percy looked over to where Hermione was heading, "Please, also apologize to Mr. Potter for me concerning my youngest brother. I will write my mother about his behaviour."

"Thank you."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Albus was just about to wave the dinner away when he noted the oldest Weasley currently at Hogwarts walking up to the staff table, towards Minerva.

"Professor Mcgonagall," He heard the boy say, despite his soft tone, "there's a muggleborn who has a letter for you from her guardian. She says it's important, a Miss Granger."

"Very well," Minerva replied, "Instruct her, and I assume also Mr. Potter to wait for me at the conclusion of the feast. Please also wait outside the Hall for them with the other first years until I send them out."

"Anything interesting?" Albus asked his Deputy, eyes twinkling.

"Oh, nothing. Just a letter from a concerned guardian, I will be speaking with the students involved." She looked at him sidelong.

"I couldn't help but notice you mentioned young Harry…"

"Do you want to have this conversation _here_, Headmaster?" Mcgonagall fixed him with a stern gaze before leaning forwards to better see Professor Sprout.

"Pomona, I have a feeling there will be a similar letter for you from Mr. Dursley."

"I meet all my new badgers the first night, I'll speak to him then. But thank you for the heads up." Professor Sprout returned.

"Dursley?" Albus mused aloud, _wait, how is that possible?_

"I have a strong feeling that I know what those letters will say, Albus. We can speak afterwards. I believe it's time for you to end the feast?" Professor Mcgonagall couldn't quite kept the smirk off her face.

The Headmaster frowned, "I suppose I shall wait for you in my office then?" The other teacher nodded and he stood to close the feast.

"It's nice to see the two of you again, Mister Potter, Miss Granger." Professor Mcgonagall said once the crowd had left the hall, as she smiled and accepted the sealed letters from her two new lions and opened one.

"Yes, I'm so excited to be in your House, Professor!" Hermione replied excitedly.

"Me too." Harry said, "I'm glad it wasn't the _reason_ I was sorted, but I'm happy to be in the same House that my parents were."

Mcgonagall smiled to him as she began reading the letter from 'Ms. Acacia':

_To the Head of House of Hermione Jane Granger,_

_ As the magical guardian of Hermione Granger, I am formally requesting that Headmaster Albus Dumbledore _never_ be allowed in a room alone with her without _you, _or a representative that I elect, present. There has been an egregious breach of trust by him that has yet to be redressed. _

_On a less serious note, I would like to formally request progress reports of her class standing at regular intervals (up to your discretion) throughout the year. Lastly, I would like a report of any incidents that result in Hermione spending time in the Hospital Wing, for any reason no matter how minor. You may contact me through Potter Accounts Manager Axegut, of Gringotts, with the above requested information, as well as a confirmation that my first request shall be honored._

Ms_. Peony Acacia_

"May I assume," the Professor asked as she looked up from the letter, "that Mr. Potter's is similar?"

"Yes ma'am." Hermione answered, "All three letters were the same except for our names, obviously."

"Well, I shall write her tomorrow, I instructed Mr. Weasley to wait outside the Hall with the other first years for you, please go join them so you can get to the dormitory before morning." The Professor shooed the kids away as she finished speaking.

As the two newly minted Gryffindors headed for the double doors at the front of the hall Professor Mcgonagall walked back towards the side entrance used for staff, on her way to her meeting with the Headmaster. She wasn't totally sure what action the Headmaster had taken that had led to 'Ms. Acacia' taking such a stance against him, but she could certainly hazard a few guesses. Dropping Harry on the doorstep without alerting them, putting up wards that kept her from contacting the magical world without permission, even claiming Harry's magical guardianship was an overreach that directly affected the Dursleys. But something nagged at the woman and told her that none of those things caused the outright animosity that Harry and his guardian felt for the Headmaster.

These thoughts occupied her all the way to the gargoyle statue that protected the Headmaster's office, which immediately stepped aside as she approached. She hesitated at the bottom of the stairwell leading up into the office, composing herself before starting up. He still had no idea who Ms. Acacia really was; and for whatever reason hadn't done more than ask her whether they had met. 'Yes, at the Leaky Cauldron,' was all she'd given him, but now she was going to have to figure out some of what the old coot was hiding from her.

"Ah, Minerva, all was well with your students I trust?" The Headmaster asked from behind his oversized desk. A single chair rested in front of it, Mcgonagall swished her wand at it and transfigured it into a larger one with bigger cushions before sitting in it and responding.

"Yes, Ms. Acacia has requested academic and medical reports for Mister Potter and Miss Granger, I assume for young Mister Dursley as well." She pulled Harry's letter from her robe as she spoke and placed it, still sealed, on the desk. "There was one other thing she requested. I'm told all three letters were the same, save the student's name, so feel free to read that one for yourself."

Albus frowned as he sat back and opened the letter to read, his frown deepened as he read the first request in the brief note. His frown quirked into a smile, then deepened again as he finished reading.

"I assume, since you've read the other letter, that you see now why I was interested in Ms. Acacia." Albus began once he'd read the letter twice over. "She clearly wants to influence young Harry against me."

"Oh, I quite agree." Mcgonagall responded tersely, "She has had an enormously positive influence on Mister Potter." Dumbledore's mouth shut with an audible _click_. "For almost ten years." Mcgonagall continued, causing the older wizard's eyes to open comically wide.

"Oh yes, ten years. Mr. Potter was raised knowing about magic; and yes, Mr. Potter bears some enmity towards you for cutting them off like you did." Albus' brow furrowed in frustration, "But, Ms. Acacia did not seem to when I met her in person. She feels slighted by you, yes, but also understands that many of the things you did _were_ to protect Harry. Her issues stemmed from something else that I don't quite understand."

But Albus did.

"Go ahead, ask your questions Minerva." Albus sighed, obviously something had gone wrong with his plan. Maybe he could learn something from this too.

"Why did you cut them off from both directions, Albus? What was the point in that? Honestly, that's the most pressing question I have." She paused for a moment, "I think I know why there were two hundred owls directed to the Dursleys the day I went. You wanted to send a staff member and argue that Ms. Acacia was negligent or incapable?" She frowned, "That wouldn't work. I want to understand your obsession with being Mr. Potter's guardian. Why is it important if he's coming to Hogwarts anyways?"

Albus fixed her gaze, "I cast the spell in both directions because of what you and Hagrid told me that night." The woman looked confused for a minute as she recalled Halloween 'eighty-one before she realized, "Yes. You both told me that Petunia Dursley strongly disliked magic and magical kind. I worried that Lily's sister might know where Diagon Alley is and take Harry there to try and be rid of him at the first sight of accidental magic."

Slowly, sadly, Mcgonagall nodded, "I will admit, yes," he continued, "that the large number of owls was a direct attempt to wrest guardianship back for Harry. I intended to prevail upon Petunia to submit paperwork for the change."

"But why, and if you were so worried that Lily's sister would reject her own nephew, why would you place him there?"

"There are extraordinarily powerful wards at Privet Drive. I'm sure you noticed them? Among them there is one based on the blood connection Harry and his aunt have with Lily Potter. As long as Harry lives at Privet Drive, and is still a minor, that ward will prevent any marked Death Eater, as well as any magical being with intent to harm young Harry, from being able to find him, or even the street he's on. Honestly, I had no idea that Harry's cousin was also a wizard, but that fact would have made the blood ward even stronger, as he is also connected to Lily's bloodline and is magical."

Professor Mcgonagall sighed as she pinched her nose, then responded, "I see where you might have felt that the extra wards you put up that cut off the Dursleys from the magical world could have been necessary. I will write Ms. Acacia and Mrs. Dursley a letter explaining that, and apologizing for being accidentally responsible for your thinking so." She took a breath, "But that doesn't answer why you feel all of this is so _important_."

Before the Headmaster could respond to her, one of the portraits of past headmasters on the wall spoke up, interrupting them, "Professor Mcgonagall, the Gryffindor portrait says that there is an incident in the Gryffindor Dormitories, you are needed."

"We can finish this another time, Albus. Think on your answer to that question, and please do not bother Ms. Acacia." She stood up and walked briskly out the door.

"What do I do, Fawkes?" Dumbledore asked the phoenix perched in the corner, "He was supposed to be meek, receptive. What do I do?" The phoenix looked at him sadly, but didn't make a sound.

O0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Wow, this is so cool. Like a secret spy-base." Dudley whispered to Justin as the male fifth year prefect demonstrated how to open the secret passage to the Hufflepuff dorms. Tapping your wand five times to the beat of Helga Hufflepuff's name on the biggest round barrel would make it open up like a door. Not only was it an awesome secret entrance with a special knock to get in, it was only two floors under the dining hall!

"Don't worry, it won't open unless you've been attuned to the door. So no one from the other houses is going to sneak in just by spying on you getting in." The prefect, Gabriel Truman, said as the door swung outward, revealing a round walkway that he had to duck into, but which opened up quickly.

"Follow me please, Professor Sprout, our Head of House will be joining us soon. She will be attuning you to the door before you separate to go to your respective living quarters." As he spoke, the group had walked through the passage, which had opened into a large, yet cozy, round room with a cheerful fire burning in an oversized hearth large enough for two couches to rest in front of.

"Hello first years. Welcome to the Badger's Den." A girl wearing a prefect badge like Gabriel's said once everyone was in. "I'm Jessica Smith, the other fifth year prefect. Once Professor Sprout has attuned everyone to the entrance I'll be leading you girls to your living quarters through that door." She gestured to a round door on the right hand side of the Den, "Gabriel will, obviously, be showing you guys to your beds tonight through the other door."

"You guys have a couple minutes before Professor Sprout gets here, so you guys make sure you know everyone else, and definitely ask Jessica or I if you have any questions." Gabriel said as the group began to spread through the common area.

The first years didn't have any questions beyond knowing when they would receive their schedules. Once they learned they'd receive them at breakfast the Hufflepuffs congregated on the couches in front of the fire to formally introduce each other to those who were sitting too far apart at dinner.

"Well doesn't that just do my heart good." Professor Sprout said to Gabriel Truman as she entered the Den, causing the first years to notice her and stand up.

"Hello, students, I am Professor Pomona Sprout. I have been the Head of House Hufflepuff for twenty-two years now, and I'm also your Herbology Professor. If any of you ever have issues with members of another House, it is I you should come to." She looked over the smiling faces in front of her. "We are Hufflepuffs, the house of the loyal and hard working. We help each other, we help others. I expect great things from all of you. If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask them now. If you come up with any more later you may come to me after hours or ask a prefect to contact me. They have enchanted notepads that can request my presence for a meeting, if needed."

Dudley raised his hand once the Professor had finished speaking, "Ma'am, I have a letter from my magical guardian that she told me to give to my Head of House." He pulled it out of his robes and presented it to her.

"May I assume that Professor Mcgonagall received two copies of this?" Professor Sprout asked with a smile as she accepted it. "There was a small comotion up at the staff table, would you stay here and be present when I read it?" When Dudley nodded she turned to the other students and verified they were all content before attuning their magics to the door and sending them to bed.

"Mister Dursley, Ms. Acacia isn't worried for your _safety_ here at Hogwarts, is she?" Professor Sprout exclaimed once she'd finished the letter, "Hogwarts takes security very seriously, and myself in particular."

"Professor, with respect, what's with the 'painful death' on the third floor then?" Dudley asked with a raised eyebrow. "But really, that's for my parents' sakes."

"I have been trying to reason with the Headmaster on that for a month now… Please understand that the Headmaster's warning was _not _a joke, and that if I find any of my Hufflepuffs in that corridor it will mean a week's detention, at least." She sighed, "As for her request for academic records, that will not be a problem. But, could you please enlighten me why the Headmaster is not allowed to be in the same room as you without another adult?"

"Uh, honestly ma'am, I don't know everything. Harry was left on my parents' doorstep by Professor Dumbledore in the middle of the night, so my parents have always kinda thought he shouldn't be trusted with kids." Dudley answered, which caused Professor Sprout's eyes to widen in shock. "There was something else that happened when Harry went to Gringotts, but I don't know anything about that ma'am."

"That's quite alright, I understand." Professor Sprout shuddered, "Leaving young Harry on a doorstep in November is definitely cause to worry about him. I shall write Ms. Acacia a letter tonight establishing the specifics of her other requests. If I could keep you from your bed for just one more question? Who _is_ Ms. Peony Acacia? I would have expected the Headmaster himself to be your magical guardian to be honest, but there is a Gringotts seal at the bottom of this letter indicating it is authentic."

"She's a squib who's related to Harry." Dudley replied, "When that thing happened at Gringotts she got really mad and that's when she filed to become me and Harry's guardian. Hermione too after she started coming to see us on weekends."

Professor Sprout nodded sagely, "Well, that answers that. Secrecy around your nephew can only help his protection. That answers several questions, I believe. Go join your yearmates Mister Dursley, and have a good night."

"So what was the letter from your guardian about? If you don't mind us asking?" Justin asked on behalf of the other boys once Dudley had joined them in the first year bedrooms.

"Nothing much, some stuff Professor Sprout needed to know about because of my cousin mostly." Dudley shrugged.

"Makes sense, I guess." Ernie said as the boys turned in for bed.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"At least I won't have to worry about running or something while I'm here." Hermione said tiredly as they walked through the portrait into the Gryffindor common room. "So many stairs, how are we supposed to get to classes on time?"

Some of the other students snickered at her antics, even Harry couldn't help but smile at it. The two fifth year prefects, Percy Weasley and a girl named Delilah Higgs, led the first years to their respective dorm rooms and showed them where their trunks were already placed by a bed.

"If you need anything, I'll be doing some last minute corrections on my summer homework in the common room. Please come get me if necessary, and have a good night." With those words, Percy left them to get settled in.

Neville noticed Harry pull out a large red and gold pillow with black tassels and set it at the head of his bed, "I thought you hadn't planned on any particular House before you came to Hogwarts, Harry?" Neville chuckled, "What's that then?"

"Oh, I got this for Najash a couple years ago," As Harry answered Neville's eyes widened and he mouthed 'bad idea', "Sorry Neville, I get it. But I don't wanna hide him from the guys living in here, you know?" He let Najash slither from his robe sleeve onto the bed. The snake worked his way under the pillow to hide, hissing _~One of them tastes of fear, Harry~_ as he did.

"Oi, what the hell Potter!" Seamus Finnigan shouted as he jumped backwards away from the bed with the snake. "What do you think you're doing bringing a bloody snake in here! I'm not getting bit by that thing when you aren't looking!" He turned and ran out of the room, shouting for Percy Weasley.

"That could have gone better, Harry." Neville groaned as he watched Dean Thomas back away from Harry as well.

"What was that about then?" Dean asked, "I mean, I don't particularly like snakes mate, and they weren't on the list of pets we could bring, but _that _was a bit mental."

"Well," Neville answered, remembering that Dean was muggleborn, "snakes are generally seen as agents of dark magic. Plus, Harry, are you sure he's not venomous?" Neville asked, eyeing the pillow the serpent hid under slightly warily, "Most brightly coloured snakes _are_ you know. It was too dark on the boats for me to see him that well."

"Najash isn't dangerous at all Neville, promise." Harry plopped onto his bed and sighed. Neville moved over and, cautiously, sat on Harry's bed as well.

"You aren't going to start talking to him are you?" Neville whispered to Harry. He nodded to Harry's negative response and said to Dean, "It's mostly superstition. Apparently Mister Finnigan takes it seriously though."

"And you can get permission for other pets besides cats, toads, and owls. I just had to ask Professor Mcgonagall and tell her his name." Harry offered.

"Well, I haven't seen anything weird yet. He's not dangerous?" Dean asked Harry, who shook his head again, "Then I don't see anything wrong with him." With that said, the boys went back to setting their respective beds the way they liked. Harry took the chance to set up his parent's picture on his nightstand.

It took a few minutes for Seamus to come back, with both Percy Weasley and Professor Mcgonagall in tow. By unspoken agreement, none of the three remaining boys had turned in yet, expecting a noisy confrontation. Hermione came up behind the three, waiting at the door while Seamus led the two older people in, looking worried.

"Its under that pillow, Professor!" Seamus practically shrieked as he backed up to be behind Percy.

Professor Mcgonagall sighed as Percy Weasley began, "Mister Potter, Mister Finnigan came downstairs with a rather disturbing report. Do you have an unapproved pet, urgh, a snake in your bed?" Percy was clearly disgusted at the thought.

Harry, for his part looked directly at Professor Mcgonagall, "But Professor, you said it would be fine if I brought Najash and Dudley brought Hedwig."

"Oh dear." Mcgonagall said, remembering the strange name, "I believe I did, didn't I." She looked past Harry at the pillow which hid the offending animal. "It is absolutely on me that I didn't verify what manner of creature he was. I confess, when we spoke I simply assumed he was a rat or mouse. The idea that Harry Potter would have a snake for a pet just didn't cross my mind." Harry frowned at her words, "I knew at the time that you knew about our world, so I would have thought you'd avoid snakes to avoid association with You-Know-Who. I didn't mean anything else by it." She squinted and pinched her nose for a moment while Hermione chewed her bottom lip behind them all.

"May I see the thing, then? Mister Potter?" Professor Mcgonagall asked. Harry reached over and gently moved the pillow before holding out his hand for Najash to wrap up around. When he held the snake up for the teacher to inspect she frowned at him, "What spell did you cast to make it have those colours?" The thing had alternating deep red and gold bands separated by thin black lines.

"I didn't Ma'am. This is what he naturally looks like." Harry said.

"He's a kingsnake, Professor." Hermione offered from the door, "When I first met Harry I was wary too, cause he's bright red and yellow and I'd always heard that bright colours meant 'dangerous' for foreign snakes."

"A… 'king snake'? Like a king cobra?" The professor asked, confused. Percy and Seamus were flabbergasted that the professor was even listening to this and not just telling Potter to get rid of the serpent.

"A scarlet kingsnake, Professor. They are a non venomous species that is immune to the venom of the local snakes where they come from, which they hunt." Hermione continued.

"And where is that?" The Professor asked as she eyed the snake. It was remarkably well-behaved, with Harry stroking the top of it's head.

"North America, Ma'am." Harry answered, "I told you I found him in the back garden one summer. Apparently one of my neighbors bought him from some illegal pet seller and when their parents found him they threw him out."

"It's still a snake, Potter. It needs to go." Percy Weasley said, trying his best not to look away from the little serpent wrapped around Harry's wrist and hand. Harry frowned, he didn't want to be separated from his friend.

"That is a bit premature, Mister Weasley." Mcgonagall corrected.

"But Professor!"

"No buts. Technically Najash has been approved through the proper channels already." She looked pointedly at Harry, "There will be no incidents with him, and Mister Finnigan will _never _find your pet in his bed or playing any part in some other prank on him. Is that clear?" Harry nodded, "There will be no warning issued, Mister Potter. While I didn't confirm what kind of animal he was, you should have made sure I knew. Your fast defense of him, as well as Miss Granger seemingly knowing to join us, tells me you knew he would be a problem beforehand. You should have said something." She paused for a moment.

"Get to bed, all of you. You too Miss Granger. I understand that you were worried for your friend, but in the future please refrain from coming up to the boy's dorms without being invited, and not at night." Hermione nodded, embarrassed, and ran back down the stairs. "Mister Finnigan, if Mister Potter's pet bothers you outside of simply existing then bring your complaint to me, please." She looked at the four first year boys, "Mister Weasley, things are taken care of here for now, do not bother Mister Potter about the nature of his pet."

"Yes, Professor." He looked like he was sucking on something sour as he said the words, but headed back downstairs to continue revising his homework.

"Now, get to bed." The Professor turned and headed out the door, leaving Seamus Finnigan staring, horrified, at the snake wrapped around his roommate's hand.

"I don't hold it against you or anything, Seamus." Harry offered as he sat on his bed and let Najash slither back under his pillow. "I promise, he won't bother you." Seamus just frowned and nodded, without speaking, and began preparing for bed. "If you guys wouldn't mind, can you not go telling everyone that I have a snake in here? At least this early in the term?" Neville and Dean nodded, but Finnigan ignored him.

The whole room got a little bit quieter after Harry's last words for the night before closing his curtains, directed at the picture on his nightstand, "Goodnight mum, goodnight dad." Neville was in a position to see James and Lily Potter wave out from the picture.

As Professor Mcgonagall descended the stairwell towards the Gryffindor common room she fought to wrap her head around what she'd learned. Harry Potter had a snake for a pet. Not just any snake, but a snake-hunting, venom-resistant, _Gryffindor-coloured_ snake that was, itself, not venomous? Astounding.

"Albus is going to have a full-grown kneazle." She muttered to herself with a chuckle.

"Oh, Mister Weasley." She said as she passed through the common room, "I see no reason to go shouting that Mister Potter has a pet snake. Not that we will hide it, but won't volunteer the information. Alright?" She stared at him pointedly until he agreed.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"What was that about, Hermione? Is Harry okay?" Lavender Brown asked the moment that Hermione had made it back to her dorm, practically falling off her bed she was leaning so far forward on it.

"Harry is fine." Hermione took a breath to remind _herself _of that, "When I heard shouting I just panicked. I was worried something bad had happened to Harry." Both Lavender and her friend Fay smirked knowingly at Hermione before heading to the bathroom to get a shower before bed.

Before Hermione could begin her own preparations, Parvati Patil walked over to her, "I was in the stairwell when that boy was shouting. He said Potter had a snake? Is that true?"

She didn't seem scared, just curious, so Hermione answered, "Harry wasn't trying to broadcast it, but yes. He has a pet snake, they're really close."

"What kind of snake is he?" The Indian witch asked, seemingly genuinely curious.

"Uh, he's a kingsnake, why?" Hermione asked.

"Huh? Like a King Cobra?" She returned, confused.

"No, it's a constrictor, American." Hermione responded. "He's even Gryffindor red-and-gold, but that didn't stop that Seamus fellow from shrieking like a girl. Najash is only two feet long or so anyways."

Parvati laughed at that, "I'd like to meet him sometime, if you think Harry would let me?" at Hermione's stunned expression she continued, "Snakes aren't feared in India, and people with a snake familiar, particularly a King Cobra, though I bet this 'kingsnake' would be similar, are especially revered in my home country's culture."

"Uh, sure, I'll ask him tomorrow." Hermione replied as she finished getting ready for bed.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Ronald Weasley clutched tightly to his pet rat, Scabbers, in his pocket. The Slytherin common room was dark and drab, and there were snake motifs on the walls. The first years were grouped relatively tightly together, which unfortunately meant that Ron couldn't avoid hearing Malfoy continue to take pot-shots at his family's size and lack of wealth. He hoped that the boy would shut up once they got to the dorms and went to bed.

Meanwhile, Professor Snape had begun giving them an introduction to the House, "You are Slytherins, cunning and proud. Outside that door I will tolerate absolutely no fighting between Slytherins. No one out there will accept you, you are just snakes to them, so you must always present a united front. Even if it isn't true." He looked directly at Ron, "Prefects, take the first years to bed."

Ron followed the fifth year prefect, Marcus Flint, with the other first year boys. He still couldn't believe this was happening to him. He was supposed to be rooming with Harry Potter! Not Malfoy and his goon squad!

"Malfoy, Nott, Zabini," Marcus said once the group was in the dorm, "Weasley," He locked eyes with Crabbe and Goyle standing behind Draco Malfoy after getting Ron's attention, "listen to me here. Professor Snape wasn't kidding about standing together as Slytherin. I get that Weasley's family are blood traitors, but the Hat has said he's worthy of Slytherin and we're gonna treat him that way. Weasley… remember that goes both ways." Ron nodded stiffly, and noted that the others did as well with only Malfoy hesitating.

"Good," Marcus continued, I noticed that Weasley was apart from the rest of you at the feast, spend some time getting to know each other a little. You've got to spend seven years together, may as well get along. Mister Malfoy," He said, looking at Draco Malfoy, "I noticed you ostracizing Weasley in public earlier. You got away with it because Professor Snape hadn't given his first-night talk. Don't let it happen again."

"Understood."

It wasn't supposed to be like this, Ron thought as Marcus Flint closed the door on his way out.

**AN:** I'm sure many of you thought Harry and Hermione would end up in Ravenclaw. But as the Hat told Dudley, Ravenclaw is for those that value knowledge for knowledge's sake. Harry wants to change the world, at least a little, knowledge will just help him get there.


	8. Chapter 7: New Classes, New Friends

New Classes, New Friends

Harry woke up early on Tuesday, like he always did, checking his watch on the nightstand told him it was six-thirty. Yesterday had been a day to learn their way around the castle, but today would be the first day of real class. Thankfully, the other guys in his dorm hadn't brought up what happened that first night to anyone, but he doubted that would hold for too long.

_~Najash? You were sleepy looking last night. Are you okay?~ _Harry asked his snake, hidden under the tasseled pillow by his head.

_~I feel… sated?~ _came the muffled reply from under the, apparently Gryffindor coloured, pillow,_ ~Too full, but in a good way. I think it is the magic of this nest, I will be more alert when I am used to it.~_

_~I will make sure it's safe for you in class today then, little friend. You can come tomorrow when you feel better.~ _He rolled out of bed to find that he was the first one up, and decided to go ahead and get his shower out of the way.

When he returned twenty minutes later he found Neville and Finnigan arguing. Apparently Finnigan was still trying to get Neville and Dean to petition for Najash to be kicked out. Harry realized, as he stood in the doorway, that he'd stopped calling the boy 'Seamus' in his head sometime last night and frowned. He needed Dudley's help here, he wasn't good at dealing with prejudice. It just made him really angry and then he couldn't think straight and made things worse.

"If you stayed away from my bed you could even forget he was there, Finnigan." Harry said, tersely, as he finally decided to enter the room. He strode purposefully over to his bed, where Najash had curled up into the warm spot he'd left, and began getting his school robes in order for the day and the other boys hastened to follow suit.

"I'm planning to leave him here today, by the way." Harry said to the others in general without turning around, "But I was really hoping that it would be where he could come with me to some classes, It'll depend on our schedule." He noticed from the corner of his eye that Finnigan was turning pale again at that, "He spent the whole ride on the train and the sorting feast wrapped around my arm. You won't notice him."

While the others were finishing getting dressed, Harry quietly confirmed that Najash had the energy to move away if Finnigan tried something stupid, and headed down to the common room to hopefully meet Hermione before he got too mad at someone this early in the day.

"Everything alright, Harry?" His best friend asked from the couch in front of the hearth as he stepped off the last stair. "Seamus give you trouble again this morning?" She continued. Harry was red faced and looked to be fighting to control his breathing.

"Yeah, he…" Harry looked past Hermione and noticed that the girl who'd been split from her twin at the Sorting was sitting on her other side, "Hi, miss, uh?"

"Patil, Parvati Patil, Mister Potter." She seemed to be eyeing him rather strangely as she extended her hand to shake, but thankfully she wasn't focused on his scar, "Um, sorry, if this is private I can go on to breakfast."

"She heard Seamus shout the first night." Hermione said from between the two, at Harry's panicked look she was quick to continue "I don't think anyone else did, don't worry, and she's not scared of snakes. You tell him." Hermione offered to Parvati.

"She's right. In India, snakes aren't considered dark; they are often companions of spiritual leaders or healers." Parvati said, "Is, uh… 'Najash' down here with you?"

"No, I didn't think bringing him to class on the first day would be a good idea." Harry responded jokingly. Parvati seemed to frown a bit, much to Harry's confusion.

"I can introduce you after class today maybe?" He offered, "He didn't really want to move much anyways, he said all the magic at Hogwarts made him feel 'full'?"

He looked up in confusion, trying to come up with a better analogy. Words in Parseltongue had nuance he didn't know how to express in English.

"He 'said'?" Parvati asked quietly, peeking around to make sure they were alone.

Harry also made sure no one was in earshot before answering, "Um, yeah, I can talk to him…"

"That's amazing! Even at home, Speakers are rare!" Parvati gushed, Harry frowned and motioned for her to calm down and keep her voice low. "Sorry, it's just so surprising! I thought you might be a Speaker when I found out you had a snake companion, but then you said you'd left your snake upstairs even though Hermione had told me he was small enough to hide… but I hadn't thought that all the magic here might make him lethargic for a while. I bet he gets his energy back soon."

"I hope so." Harry said wistfully. "I'm glad that not everyone is totally freaked by him. I knew he was gonna cause some stares but I wasn't expecting that first night freak-out."

"It'll all work out, Harry. I'm sure." Hermione said. "Now let's go get some breakfast." She tapped Harry on the arm and nodded at Neville, Dean, and Finnigan, who had just come down the stairs.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Hey does anyone know when we get our schedules?" Hermione asked as they sat down to breakfast. "I can't believe I didn't think to ask that sooner."

"Right here Miss Granger," Professor Mcgonagall said from behind her while she began handing out the schedules to the first years, "Quite convenient that so many of you are here together. Keeps me from having to traipse up and down from the Head Table." She joked.

The group checked their schedules, "Cool." Harry said, relieved, "Our first two classes are with Hufflepuff! We can see how Dudley's doing." Their first two periods of the day were Herbology and Charms with Hufflepuff, then Transfiguration and Defense after lunch with the Slytherins.

"I'm so excited for Transfiguration!" Hermione said, which made Mcgonagall smile as she returned to her seat. "It looks to be very interesting, but the books said it was also very difficult to perform properly."

"Too bad we have to wait until Friday for Potions." Harry lamented.

"Wait," Neville asked him, "you actually _want_ to be in Potions?" At Harry's nod he was flabbergasted, "But, Snape teaches that class!"

"Professor Snape." Hermione corrected.

"He's the Head of Slytherin," Neville pressed on, "and he hates anyone thats not in his own House. Especially Gryffindors! The way the Weasley twins tell it, he'll dock house points for breathing too loud."

Harry frowned, they had to be exaggerating didn't they? "I'm sure it's not that bad, the twins probably did something to prank him or something like that. What class are you most excited for Neville?"

The group, even Finnigan, chatted amicably about the classes they were most interested in. Dean agreed with Hermione, that Transfiguration seemed like the coolest kind of magic. Parvati Patil wasn't sure what she was actually interested in, her sister Padma was the brainy one. Neville wasn't sure he'd do well in any class except Herbology because he had a hard time casting spells, but he did mention the greenhouses he kept at home and was happy he'd have something here to remind him of home.

"Look Harry." Hermione nudged him about quarter-till-eight and pointed to Dudley and another boy wearing Hufflepuff robes were walking over holding their schedules.

"Hey Big D." Harry greeted happily when the two arrived, "These are the guys in my dorm, Dean and Fi-_Seamus_, and that's one of Hermione's roommates, Parvati Patil." He quickly introduced the Gryffindors who were present. Lavender and Fay were probably still in bed according to Hermione. "You already met Neville, obviously."

"Hey, nice to meet you all." Dudley replied, he raised an eyebrow at Harry apparently almost calling Seamus by his last name, "I'm Dudley Dursley, Harry's cousin."

"And I'm Justin," the other boy offered, "Justin Finch-Fletchley." the two took seats at the end of the table, "Mister Diggory, in the third year, told us that we only have to sit at our House tables for important feasts, so Dudley wanted to come sit here for breakfast."

"I kinda told the guys that I'd try to get you to sit with us at Hufflepuff for lunch too." Dudley added sheepishly.

"Maybe dinner?" Harry asked, looking at his schedule, "I'm going to have to run back up to my room at some point during lunch and switch out books, but you have just Potions this afternoon." He sighed, "Lucky you, I don't get that class till Friday morning."

Dudley and Justin put food on their plates as the group began comparing notes on how their dorms and common rooms were arranged. The Gryffindors were definitely jealous of how close the 'Puffs were to the Great Hall. Dudley laughed when Hermione complained about the stairs again.

"At least you won't have to worry about getting out of shape. I'm gonna have to figure out a time I can go running or something. Maybe around that lake?"

He glanced at Harry to see if he'd join him. Harry shook his head and mimed stairs with his hands, to everyone's amusement.

At eight o'clock a flurry of owls flew into the Hall; delivering, according to Neville, the daily mail. Harry and Dudley were surprised when Hedwig landed on the table between them and held out her leg, burdened with a letter. While Harry was unfastening the letter, Dudley offered the snowy owl a few strips of bacon; who snatched them out of his hand with an angry bark.

"Sorry girl!" He said to placate her moody glare, "I was going to check on you today either after breakfast or before lunch! I didn't forget. Right Harry?"

The others at the table chuckled at the exchange, as Harry joined his cousin in apologizing to the beautiful bird.

"Who's the letter from?" Hermione asked when it became apparent that Harry and Dudley had forgotten why their bird was visiting them in the first place.

Harry broke the seal and began reading, "It's from Hagrid, he's inviting us to have tea with him. He lives in that cottage on the edge of the grounds." Harry glanced at Dudley's schedule, "We don't have free periods at the same time until Monday, you guys wanna go Sunday afternoon or something?" Dudley and Hermione nodded.

"Who is 'Hagrid'?" Justin asked, "Is he a teacher?"

"You remember the really BIG guy last night? The one that brought us across the lake in those boats?" Dudley answered, to which Justin nodded, "That's Hagrid. He said he was the groundskeeper when we saw him in Diagon Alley, when we went to get our wands. He was a friend of Harry's parents and got Hedwig for us as a birthday gift for Harry. I'll introduce you, he's a good guy, and he seemed to really like magical creatures when we were talking at the Alley."

Dudley frowned slightly, "We can't all just show up at his door though. Let Harry, Hermione, and Me go see him the first time, just in case there's no room. That cottage didn't look too big."

"No worries mate, I was just curious. If there's room I'd love to go some time later, though."

"We should write our parents at some point too, maybe something short over lunch and we send it with Hedwig after last class?" Hermione suggested, "I know they will want to know what Houses we got into." She glanced at Harry's watch, "But right now we should make sure we have the right books for our morning classes."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Dudley found he disliked Herbology about as much as he thought he would. It was basically gardening, like Harry had done back home, and he'd never really gotten into that. He tried to keep his displeasure off his face for Professor Sprout, but he could tell she definitely saw him make a face when she told the class they would be repotting some kind of magic flower for that class and the next.

"Dudley." Harry said from the next table over, where he sat with Neville, Hermione, and Miss Patil, once they'd gotten started, "Aunt Petunia grows this too! There's a potion you can make with it that protects you from dark creatures."

"Like what?" Dudley replied as he looked at the fertilizer the Professor had left out for them, _Dragon Dung_. No one else at his table; Ernie, Justin, nor Mister Hopkins (Dudley wasn't sure why he insisted on the title thing) seemed to be any more keen to try it.

"Well. I think the potion I'm thinking of makes your skin burn dark creatures up to as strong as a werewolf for a few minutes." Harry said as he paused for a moment.

"Huh? This flower can protect you from a _werewolf_?" Dudley looked down at the whitish flower again.

"Your cousin is right, Mister Dursley." Professor Sprout said, apparently having overheard their conversation. "_Tego ex Tenebris_ will make the imbiber unable to be touched by many dark creatures. It only works on creatures that try to physically assault you, but is very good at it. It is often carried by Aurors when they know they are chasing such beings, like a werewolf or vampire." Dudley began scooping the dirt and fertilizer into the new pot with gusto and his friends chuckled.

"It looks like there's some Devil's Snare in that next greenhouse too." Harry discreetly pointed to the plant through the glass, "That plant is more your speed, Dudley. It wraps you up like a snake, to fertilize itself. It's almost like a creature, you know?"

"I think I'll stay away from that one." Hannah said, as she and Susan began turning pale as they looked in the direction of the dangerous flora. Harry and Dudley just laughed louder and the group went back to repotting the Moly Flower.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Seating for charms class was harder to figure out, instead of tables for four there were five long tables that curved around the teacher's podium like an amphitheatre. Harry and Hermione led the group down to the front and split down the two front rows, with the Hufflepuffs taking the row behind them.

"Have you noticed that all the classrooms seem really big?" Harry asked absently as they waited for the Professor, "Why are there five rows in here when only half the year uses it at a time?" He gestured around while Hermione thought about his question, only about a fifth of the available seats were being used.

"I'm not sure." Hermione responded, "The student greenhouse was at least three times too large for what it needs to be as well. _Hogwarts: A History_ implied that class sizes used to be much larger than ours, and it didn't look like the years above us were much larger either." She chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about it.

"Miss Granger, Mister Potter," One of the other Hufflepuff boys, Macmillan she thought, said from behind her, "I know you're muggle-raised, but surely you know about the war that ended ten years ago?"

Hermione looked back at him in puzzlement. Then she saw all of the other purebloods in the room nervously looking down or away, even Neville was clearly uncomfortable.

"A lot of whole families were killed during the war." Macmillan continued, "Many of those that survived didn't have children either until it was over. Why risk it when you know you could be next?" A few of the others winced at his words.

"Oh." Hermione said, covering her mouth as her eyes widened. "I'm sorry."

She and Harry were saved from the awkward situation by Professor Flitwick, who entered from a side door that must connect to his office, standing up on a stool behind his podium and beginning to call roll. He lost his balance and fell off the stool when he got to Harry's name, much to the boy's embarrassment.

"Now then," The Professor said once he had finished roll with Dean Thomas, "welcome to your first Charms class. In addition to some of the most versatile and useful spells you are likely to learn during your time at Hogwarts, this class will also be where you will be instructed on how to balance and focus your magic."

The diminutive wizard looked out across the nineteen young people, "Has anyone yet to try and cast a spell?" Seeing a few of them glance at each other he smiled, "Don't worry, you won't be in trouble. Tell us, what spell did you attempt?"

Hermione raised her hand, and when he called on her she said, "While we were on the train, some of us were levitating some parchment around. It was tiring."

"You were actually levitating a sheet of parchment?" The Professor returned, highly curious. "That spell isn't usually taught until students have had a month or so to get used to handling and maintaining their magic. It doesn't generally take much magic to power, but it is a spell that is very easy to _overpower_, causing you to tire. How long did you keep it aloft?"

"We noticed that on the train, Professor, though we didn't know what to call it. We were tired after only thirty seconds or so the first time we tried." Hermione replied.

"Harry kept his sheet up for almost a minute the first time." Dudley said from behind her.

Harry turned and glared at his cousin as the rest of the class looked at him in awe.

"So then, I take it the 'we' Miss Granger referred to practising with were the two of you?" Flitwick asked; politely ignoring Harry's apparently remarkable control, as he seemed to want, "Extraordinary, all three of you are muggle raised? Even you, Mister Potter? No offense intended at singling you out, young man."

"It's no problem, sir. Yes sir, Dudley and I were raised together. We met Hermione last year after she had already gotten her Hogwarts letter." Harry replied.

"Well, today we will be learning a few spells. But we shall start with two of the most commonly useful ones you will ever learn. First, the light charm, _Lumos_." The Professor snapped out his wand and it's tip illuminated in a soft white light.

"This spell, like the levitation charm, can use a variable amount of energy." The light began getting brighter and dimmer in succession, like a slow strobe, "You can use more to make it brighter. However, it is generally seen as easier to imagine how much light you want from your wand than to properly imagine how much power you need to lift something with it."

"The counterspell to Lumos, _Nox_," His wand blinked out immediately, "is required to shut off the spell. It is not common, but it is possible, to drain yourself using spells like this one and leave you unable to wield magic until you have recovered. Hence why our first class is to learn how to maintain control of your magic, and avoid that."

The students began attempting the Lumos charm as Flitwick walked in front of them, occasionally offering advice. Hermione, Dudley, and Harry, in that order, were the first to succeed in lighting, then dousing, their wands; earning house points for their respective houses in the process. Though when Dudley did it the light was rather bright, Professor Flitwick suggested he practice lighting and dousing the wand to get the right brightness and a minute or two later he felt he had it. Poor Neville ended up being the last one still working on getting his spell to work. When he cast it the light was weak and wavering, and Professor Flitwick was advising him on how to push out _more _power.

"Check this out." Dudley whispered to Justin as he put his wand down and pointed his finger up and away from him.

"_Lumos!_" He said, a little more forcefully than he intended. His finger glowed from the second joint up, shining with white light like a lantern. Justin was staring at him, slack jawed.

"Dudley, that's amazing!" Susan said from his other side as he put out his finger-light. The rest of the class looked up in time to see it shining.

"Wandless? Intentionally?" Flitwick asked, amazed himself.

"We were learning about feeling our magic using our wands from a book my mother found in Diagon Alley." Hermione offered, since it seemed Dudley was too stunned that it had actually worked so well to answer, "We had been doing the mediation the book described for a month before coming to Hogwarts." Professor nodded for her to continue, "On the train, after we had gotten the hang of the Levitation charm, we started working on the steps the book said to follow to use our magic without a wand. It was even more tiring than when we did it the normal way, but we all got it working with a little help."

"Extraordinary. All three of you?" The Professor was amazed, most people simply weren't sensitive enough to perform wandless magic without a fair amount of training first. "Hmm. If you wouldn't mind, I would love to borrow that book you mentioned, Miss Granger. If it seems like something that can be taught here, I may find some copies to offer an introductory wandless seminar or something."

"Of course, Professor. To be honest, we weren't planning to do much more with it until we got settled in anyways." She replied, "I could bring it for you to next class?"

The class continued from there, with Neville, unfortunately, being left behind as his magic failed to cooperate with him. They moved on from the Light charm to _Aguamenti_, which shot a stream of water from their wand tip. This spell had to be stopped by an act of will, and neither Justin nor the quiet Gryffindor Sally Smith could get their spells to stop before they had tired themselves. Professor Flitwick gave each of them a small bite of chocolate and told them they'd be able to rejoin the class activity in five minutes.

After the Aguamenti charm came the anti-unlocking charm _Alokola_, the Professor chose that particular spell to demonstrate another kind of charm. One that lasted a very long time after casting it.

"This spell doesn't actually _lock_ your door or trunk or what-have-you." The Professor explained, "You still have to remember to do that yourself. Rather, it prevents the unlocking charm, _Alohomora_, from working. This spell will be important to any of you that value privacy in your dorms, so I try to teach it early."

The students each received a conjured padlock and were shown how to open them with Alohomora. Then they were set the task of making them un-unlockable with Alokola. Hermione was first to get her Alohomora to work, but Dudley was quickly behind her and Professor Flitwick gave each of them five points. The anti-locking charm earned Hermione and Dudley five more points each, with Harry netting an additional three for succeeding at both spells right behind them.

The three were the first to finish the final assignment of the class, and Professor Flitwick asked them to demonstrate their wandless levitation spells.

"Wingardium Leviosa." Harry intoned as he held out his hand. Instead of the sheet of parchment the professor had provided, he lifted the charms textbook a few feet off the desktop and began moving it around the room. His classmates gasped and stared, their own assignment forgotten.

"Mister Potter, please be careful of your limits. You have more classes in the afternoon that require spellwork." Professor Flitwick said as he followed the book with his eyes. "Your control and power are remarkable. Take three points for Gryffindor. Mister Dursley, you can earn the same for Hufflepuff…"

Dudley knew he wouldn't be able to lift the textbook, so he pointed at the parchment the Professor had placed for Harry and said, "Wingardium Leviosa." The parchment shot into the air and Dudley almost lost it before he wrested control of the magic again.

"That's a lot easier today. I almost lost it cause I used too much magic or something." He said, confused, as he made the parchment do a few loops before setting it down on top of the book that Harry had returned to the desk.

"Most impressive, Mister Dursley, most impressive. Take three points for Hufflepuff." The Professor was clapping giddily for the two boys. Hermione demonstrated that she could do it as well, she tried to pick up the book like Harry did but dropped it after a few seconds.

"Very good, Miss Granger. But as I warned Mister Potter, be careful not to use too much magic with two more classes to go this afternoon." He smiled to make sure she knew it was still well done, "I expect great things from this class, until we meet on Thursday your homework shall be to practice the charms we learned in class today, as well as four inches on how you would quantify your own magical limits. Enjoy your lunch, students."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Hey Neville," Harry said as he stowed his unfinished letter home and prepared to head upstairs for his afternoon textbooks, "come up to the dorm with me. I have an idea that might help you in class."

"Uh sure?" The boy said, he wasn't looking forward to two more wanded classes today.

The two of them, plus Hermione and Lavender, headed up to the Gryffindor dorm to swap books for themselves and their roommates. Lavender spent the whole time quizzing Harry about his wandless abilities. He was happy to answer at first, but eventually pushed the questioning to Hermione. She understood it better.

Harry was much less happy when Lavender tried to exclude his best friend from their conversation, and cut it off.

When they got to their room Harry found Najash lounging in the sun on his window ledge and smiled. Carefully, so as not to make too much noise and wake his scaly friend, Harry opened his trunk and began rooting through it to the bottom.

"You can't tell _anyone _about this, Neville. Seriously." Harry said, Neville nodded and promised as he stood up with a wand box in his hands. "Having two wands is some kind of grey area. I can _have_ both, but I'm not allowed to _carry_ both." He opened the box, revealing the Holly wand.

"This wand isn't really mine, but it still chose me at Ollivander's and he agreed to sell it to me. He said the wand wanted something from me, or something like that." Harry held out the piece of wood to his friend, "See if this feels better than your dad's wand. If it does, you can use that until you've had a chance to write your Gran and get your own wand."

"Whoah," Neville exclaimed as he took the wand, "It's… warm. Like there's a fire inside or something." He frowned, "The warmth is gone! Did I mess it up? I'm so sorry Harry!" He tried to give the wand back but Harry just chuckled and began swapping books for he and the other guys.

"It does that." Harry said, "It still works even after it stops being warm, so no worries mate, and every time I picked it up again after holding my redwood wand I would feel the warmth again, so you could probably do that by picking up your dad's wand for a second."

He paused as he found the books needed for his next two classes, "Try it out while I finish this up and make sure you can cast with it, yeah? Just remember you can't walk around with both, so if you use it put your dad's in the box and put it at the bottom of your trunk."

"It should be pretty easy to keep people from realizing it's a different wand if I don't let them look at it too close," Neville said as he lit and relit the wand easily, "the wood is the same colour as my dad's."

Neville spent a few more minutes practising some of the spells they had learned in charms. His water charm summoned a mild but steady stream, and his locking and unlocking charms were now working on the first try.

"Neville," Harry said once his friend had gotten a little used to his magic actually working, "Hermione and Dudley know about my second wand, so they can help divert people, but if it's working that well for you you should write your Grandmother about getting a wand of your own for real."

"I'll do that, Harry. Right after dinner or maybe at breakfast tomorrow. But I don't think I'll be able to get away to Ollivander's before Saturday…"

"No problem, hold onto it until then." Harry said casually.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Whew, made it." Ronald Weasley said as he hurried to his seat on the Slytherin side of the room, the last to arrive.

"Try to be on time, Weasley." Malfoy said dismissively, "You represent the great House of Slytherin." The other Slytherins chuckled at the redhead.

"The Professor's not here yet, it doesn't matter, does it?" He replied, "I was just trying to get some food after I didn't get enough at breakfast."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the cat perched on the teacher's desk at the front of the class jumped off and transformed into Professor Mcgonagall.

"Mister Weasley, in the future I would advise waking up earlier to get enough breakfast. I will take points if you are late again." The stern woman said as she reached behind her and pulled out a roll sheet.

Once she had finished the roll call and familiarized herself with the new faces, Mcgonagall began her explanation of Transfiguration.

"Transfiguration is often considered more difficult than other kinds of magic like charms and jinxes. All of you have taken your first Charms class, where you learned the basics of controlling your magic output. That is a vitally important skill, but you will find Transfiguration to be the only branch of magic that almost never cares about that. Transfigurations require however much power they require, no more or less."

She pointed her wand at her desk and it turned into a pig, then she turned it back.

"No amount of practise or experience will make it take any less magic to turn a desk into a pig. Training does improve your transfigurations, though. The better you are able to _visualize_ what you want to change, both its base form and what you want it to become, the faster and more accurate your transfigurations will be. Transfiguration is not easy, it is necessary to feel the magic as it changes your target, to hold the image of the change in your mind through the entire process. Most people can only do this through repetition, so you will be assigned practical homework in this class often. It will be readily apparent if you are slacking."

She pulled out the textbook and began reading passages from it concerning the transformation of a matchstick to a needle, the first transfiguration taught due to it being basically changing one kind of 'line segment' into another kind of 'line segment'. Forty minutes of note-taking into the hour long class, the Professor finally handed out matches for the students and set them to work turning them into needles.

The spell was surprisingly hard to get right, an odd number of students ended up igniting their matches when they cast the spell. Harry and Hermione were the closest to getting it right, both of them had made their matches turn silver, but were still match-shaped. Neville had success in the opposite direction, he was now trying to figure out how to turn a wooden needle into metal.

Hermione frowned as Professor Mcgonagall walked behind them again and she still hadn't finished the transformation. With a final frustrated stab of her wand the match finished its change into a needle.

"Excellent work, Miss Granger. Take three points for Gryffindor." The Professor paused for a moment before turning back to Hermione, "In the future, you might have better luck _saying _the spell, Miss Granger."

"Oh, I was just so focused I must have forgotten. I'm sorry Professor." Hermione replied, embarrassed.

"That's quite alright, Miss Granger." Mcgonagall put her hand on the girl's shoulder, "Transformations spells of this variety are all truly one spell, with a million uses. The different incantations to the spells are used for getting into the right state of mind to focus. Separating them out in your mind can help many students. If you _can_ transfigure silently then that is a great advantage and you should try and cultivate it. But being able to do so without years of practise is a rare gift."

The Slytherins were watching Hermione Granger with renewed interest. Draco had warned the others that she could cast wandlessly, this was just reinforcing that story. Who _forgets _to say a spell's incantation and still has it work?

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The Defense classroom was wider than Charms or Transfiguration because it was made to accommodate a set of dueling rows, front and center, but otherwise arranged the same. The Professor, Quirrell, had a horrendous stutter that made him difficult to follow. His stuttering seemed to get even worse when he came to Harry's name on the roll call and Harry got another stab of pain in his scar too.

"In this class." The Professor began, once he'd finished the roll, "You will l-learn how to def-fend yourselves from d-dark creatures." The iguana in the cage behind him made a noise and he squeaked before spinning around, wand drawn. Several students snickered as he turned back around to face them.

"But, be-before we start that. I was the pro-professor of Muggle St-Studies before this year. Many purebloods w-would do well to take that c-class." He took a steadying breath, "What would you say is the greatest d-danger to wizards in peacetime?" The first years looked back and forth between them, "It's muggles! Random, a-accidental encounters with m-muggles."

"Not acromantula?" Ron Weasley asked, shakily.

"No, a-acromantula live in deep wilderness, W-Weasley." He took a second look at the red hair and green trim, "One only t-tends to encounter them when you are l-looking for them." His gaze swept over the rest of the class, "What common muggle o-occurence is most dangerous to witches or w-wizards? Any g-guesses?"

"Car accidents sir?" Hermione offered after he called on her.

"Oh, m-most wizards don't use au-automobiles, Miss. That is more a m-muggle danger alone."

"Professor," Harry said as he raised his hand, "I think you misunderstand, sir."

"What is it you t-think I do not unders-stand, Mister P-P-Potter?" He returned angrily.

"Well, sir. I don't think she meant a wizard driving a car and getting in an accident." Hermione shook her head 'no' when he looked at her for confirmation, "When we would have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron we'd look outside sometimes at the people coming in. It never failed that at least one magical person would walk into incoming traffic. I actually saw someone get hit once too."

Harry shuddered, "He was lucky it was just a glancing hit and he wasn't hurt too bad. I'm assuming it's mostly purebloods who make that kind of mistake, anyone raised in the muggle world would know they don't have right-of-way crossing the street."

Professor Quirrell stared at Harry for almost thirty seconds before smiling and nodding, "Indeed, Mister P-P-P-Potter, Miss Grang-ger. I believe I m-m-may stand corrected." He swept his gaze to the Slytherins, "In that case, the second? From a non m-muggle raised?"

"Death by suffocation? Gagging on the smell of being around them?" Malfoy drawled from the far side of the Slytherin section to polite chuckles from his housemates.

"Ten points from Slytherin for your inane nonsense, Mister Malfoy." The Professor hissed, "Anyone else?"

When no one in the Slytherin section raised their hand he looked back at the Gryffindors.

"I must say that I don't trust your facts about the danger of non magicals to wizards, Professor." Harry said as he raised his hand again. Quirrell glared at him, but bid him explain.

"But, assuming it to be true, I think the answer you were looking for is something to do with guns?" He looked over at the Slytherin section, where they were snickering and ignoring the discussion, "Do you know what a gun looks like? If a muggle attacked you in an alley would you know if they were armed?"

"What weapon could a muggle possibly have that endangers a wizard, Potter?" Malfoy returned, "I don't know what this 'gun' is, but a wizard would simply draw his wand and that would be that."

Professor Quirrell smiled as the exchange continued.

"Wait, isn't a gun what muggles used to call a 'boomstick'?" Ron Weasley asked, "I heard my dad talking about them once or twice."

"A boomstick? I thought the muggles' laws kept them from walking around with weapons like that? How does someone not notice a big boomstick? Even muggles aren't _that _daft." Nott laughed.

"There are guns not much bigger than my wand." Seamus Finnigan said, "My dad actually has a collection of old army pistols. Most of _them _I could hide up my sleeve." The laughing abruptly stopped, "Someone trying to rob you would use that. At close range you'd be dead unless you could cast something wandlessly like Harry or Hermione. Guns are no joke."

The Slytherins were stunned trying to take in this new information, Quirrell was stunned to learn about the Potter boy's wandless magic.

"Indeed," Quirrell said, stepping back into the conversation, "Many wizards will use nond-descript alleys or d-dead ends as a convenient apparition p-point. Unfortunately, these are also places frequented by m-m-muggle criminals. Many an intoxicated wizard has been robbed or even injur-ured by a muggle who surprised him with a weapon he d-did not understand."

The class continued with the Professor describing various muggle weapons that witches and wizards apparently were hurt by frequently. Handguns, Pocket Tasers, Switchblades, it was clear that the pureblood students in the room were having their eyes opened thoroughly to the fact that muggles may be without magic, but not without defense.

Harry and Hermione couldn't help but smirk when Professor Quirrell ended the class with an explanation of automobiles, though the Professor described box cars from fifty years ago. He even conjured a sort of misty diagram of the street outside the Leaky Cauldron and explained how muggle right-of-way worked with vehicles.

The class was dismissed without opening their textbooks or using their wands even once. The Professor promised that the next class would begin to cover the book material and they would learn a few simple jinxes for dealing with lesser magical pests before the week was out.

"That was kind of weird, don't you think?" Hermione asked Harry and Dean as they left the classroom, "He was the Muggle Studies teacher for years, do you think what he said about random encounters with muggles being so dangerous was real?"

"It kind of makes sense, I guess." Harry replied as they headed for the common room.

"You saw how the Slytherins were." Dean added, "They had no idea how dangerous a gun is. If they _did_ get mugged they'd probably go for their wand and get shot for it."

"Yeah, I just think he should call it like it is." Harry concluded, "It isn't that muggles are dangerous to wizards, it's that pureblood wizards being stupid is dangerous to pureblood wizards."

"Oy, what does that mean." Neville asked, a little annoyed. He hadn't known what they were talking about in class any more than the Slytherin purebloods.

"He wasn't trying to be rude, Neville," Hermione apologized as she glared at Harry, "but I do agree with the Professor on at least one thing. Wizards raised in the magical world should _have_ to take a class on the muggle world."

"Yeah mate, sorry. On the other side, though," Harry added, "I would have liked to see some kind of class to introduce me and the others raised in the non magical world to this one as well. It sucks being dropped into everything without help. Like, writing with a quill is frustrating when you aren't used to it. Non magical pens ink themselves and don't smear as easily. We've been using those in class since we were eight."

Neville nodded, he could understand that, entering a new world with no proper introduction _would_ be frustrating. Not recognizing a gun would be bad too.

"Wait, self-inking _and_ smear less than a quill?" He asked, finally registering maybe the most ridiculous thing about muggles he'd heard in the last hour, "Are you _sure_ that isn't magic?"

"When we get to the dorm, let me show you some muggle paper. It has faint lines on it to help with writing straight." Harry replied.

Neville nodded fervently, he had trouble with writing straight across the parchment too.

"You know, I've never thought of that." Mcgonagall said to Flitwick after the students had walked past them.

"I hadn't either," Flitwick confided, "but I have noticed that, historically, muggleborns' homework and essays are lopsided and have poor handwriting. It usually sorts itself out by third year or so, so I just assumed it was a lack of schooling prior to Hogwarts, like most magical children."

"Yes, but I believe the muggle custom is to begin schooling between five and six?" Mcgonagall returned, "Breaking habits that were ingrained over years of previous schooling is harder than simply learning something new."

"Perhaps a weekly class to assist in handwriting for first years? It would only need to be for a few weeks. The three… eh… relevant Heads of House could each take a week and it could potentially do a lot of good." The part-goblin was getting excited.

"I shall ask Pomona at dinner and we could potentially announce it at breakfast tomorrow."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Neville wasn't kidding, he's that bad." Dudley said as Harry sat down to dinner at the Hufflepuff table. Hermione had opted to stay at Gryffindor and get to know the girls in her dorm better.

"Huh?" Harry asked as he looked at the food on the serving plates.

"Professor Snape, the Potions guy." Dudley answered, "He's as bad as the Weasley twins told Neville he was. He even seemed to have it in for _me_,in particular"

"No way." Harry said, dismissively waving his hand.

"He literally took points from me for breathing too loudly." Dudley returned, deadpan.

"Oh," Harry wasn't sure how to come back to that, so he decided to just change the subject, "well introduce me to the people here I don't know."

Dudley introduced Harry to the remaining first year Hufflepuffs he hadn't spoken to in Herbology or Charms, as well as a few brave Ravenclaws who came over to meet the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry quickly got tired of every new person looking directly at his scar when they were introduced.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Potter." Cedric Diggory said as he shook Harry's hand after Dudley introduced them, "I was hoping I could speak with you for a few minutes this evening so I can answer some questions my father is going to have."

"Why would your father have questions of me?" Harry asked, suspicion clear on his face.

"Oh boy." Diggory groaned. "Can we move down to the end of the table after we eat? Just for a little bit of privacy?"

"Uh…" Harry wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Can you at least give me a hint?"

"It's about my father's work. He's with the Ministry."

"Alright then?" Harry still wasn't sure what to expect, but that wasn't going to stop him from enjoying his dinner.

Once the usual ooh-ing and aah-ing over Harry's scar was done the conversation moved to the wandless abilities that he, Hermione, and Dudley had demonstrated in Charms. At first, Harry tried to talk them through the steps he remembered in Hermione's book, but he ultimately gave up when they started knocking over goblets while dropping their wands onto the table.

"Hermione is planning to take the book to class tomorrow." Harry reminded them, "Professor Flitwick is probably going to be offering a proper class on it soon."

Once Harry had finished eating he indicated to Mister Diggory that he was ready for that talk and the two moved down to the unoccupied end of the table. When they sat back down Harry went to ask what was going on, only for Cedric to draw his wand and begin muttering spells as he waved it in the air.

"Sorry," He said, seeing Harry's nervous look, "those were spells to keep people from hearing what we're talking about."

"What _are_ we talking about?" Harry asked, trying to sound calm.

"Mister Dursley indicated at the opening feast that Headmaster Dumbledore isn't your magical guardian." Cedric began, pausing only for a moment when he saw Harry's shocked look, "My father is currently sitting on the Wizengamot as proxy for the Potter seat, and he was given that proxy by Dumbledore. Who claimed to be your magical guardian at the time."

"He was never, really." Harry answered, "I don't know anything about the Wizengamot or anything like that. But I can add it to the letter I'm sending home to my actual guardian tonight." Harry frowned, "I have no way to know what she'll do when she finds out. But I imagine she'll contact your father."

"I'll write him and let him know. He won't be happy about this, I'm pretty sure that Dumbledore has implied to my dad that you knew about him at least." Cedric was thoughtful. How _would _his father react to this?

"Uh, one last thing before you leave." Cedric stopped him as Harry made to get up and rejoin his cousin, "I heard from everyone over there that you can do wandless magic? I'm not trying to be a fanboy or anything, but I've never seen someone who wasn't… well, _old_ doing it."

"Sure, I guess." Harry replied, "Wingardium Leviosa."

He pointed at a pitcher of pumpkin juice and levitated it to pour into a goblet in front of Cedric, who watched the process with stunned awe.

"Whoa. That was really cool." Cedric finally said as he picked up the newly filled goblet.

Over at the Slytherin table, Malfoy was watching with rapt attention. Potter had just casually levitated a pitcher of juice with his _finger_, and he had somehow renewed Longbottom's wand. Was that time magic? Malfoy had gotten a fairly good look at the wand Longbottom was using after the squib had done so well in Transfiguration. It looked like the wand he'd had out the day before, but this one seemed brand new and the other was definitely a family wand.

Dudley, Harry, and Hermione found the owlery after dinner and each tied a letter to Hedwig's leg. They had considered writing one collaborative letter, but ultimately decided that their parents would prefer to read each of their opinions on Hogwarts separately.

"Hey Dudley," Harry said as they descended, "Maybe we should ask our Heads of House if the whole year group for our houses can swap back and forth for meals. It would be good for getting to know people we only see in class."

"I can ask when I get back." Dudley replied. Harry and Hermione both griped about Professor Mcgonagall not being as accessible as Professor Sprout.


	9. Chapter 8: The Witch of Little Whinging

The Witch of Little Whinging

While Petunia read the letter from Hermione over morning tea, the third letter of the morning, Hedwig watched from the perch they'd put out for her in the kitchen waiting for the inevitable return letter that her boys' mother would send. She had just come from Hermione's house and was rather happy to have so much to do.

"Everyone settled in well, dear?" Vernon asked between bites of his breakfast.

"Oh yes," Petunia said as she finished the final letter, "Poor Dudley ended up in a different House from Harry and Hermione. Those two are in… 'Gryffindor'," she sounded out the word, "which Hermione says is the House of the Brave. That was also Lily's House, I'd forgotten that. Lucky Harry."

"Would have thought the two brains would be in the smart house. There was one, right?" Vernon remarked, earning a warning glare from his wife.

"Dudley is in 'Hufflepuff'," Vernon snorted and choked on his tea, "Oh please, you know how they are with naming things!" Petunia admonished him, "Hufflepuff is the House of Loyalty. Dudley wrote in his letter that the entrance is under the dining hall and is hidden behind a barrell you have to tap in a special rhythm. He makes it sound very 'James Bond'."

"How was the first day of class then? I have to go soon, don't keep me waiting."

Petunia frowned, "They all had their first two classes together, and all three said they loved it. That book the three of them were looking at last month has apparently gotten them ahead of their peers in Charms and Transfiguration."

At Vernon's confused look she elaborated, "'Making things do things' magic and 'turning things into other things' magic, Vernon. This is about your children's lives, the least you could do is try and learn how to talk about it." Vernon nodded, duly chastened.

"Harry and Hermione had a good time in their afternoon classes too, but… I may need to write a letter to Professor Mcgonagall about their Potions Professor."

She pulled out Dudley's letter again, "He calls the Professor 'Snape', but from the description of him it _has _to be_ Severus_ Snape. He grew up on the same street as Lily and I. A truly spiteful boy. I should feel sorry for him, with his father having been abusive, but he turned that abuse on others. He tried to use magic on me when we were little but my sister stopped him, and Lily told me stories of him running with a darker crowd in school."

"Hard to imagine someone like that changing enough to become a teacher." Vernon mused.

"That's the thing," his wife returned, "according to Dudley he _hasn't_ changed. Apparently Dudley lost house points, part of some year long academic competition, for breathing too loudly among other inane reasons. He says he was pretty much the only one targeted like that in his class. I think the man knows who our boy is, and is acting unprofessional. It's exactly the kind of thing the Severus Snape I remember would do."

She took a moment to inhale a composing breath, "But I probably should wait until Harry has had the class as well, just to know it isn't a one-off thing."

"The real problem." She continued, looking at each of the letters one more time to confirm they all mentioned it, "At the commencement feast the Headmaster said to the whole school that there was something dangerous being kept in a wing of the third floor. That anyone who went there would, and I quote, 'die a most painful death'."

Vernon almost dropped his cup.

"Dudley says in his letter that he asked his Head of House about it, and while she isn't on board with whatever the Headmaster is doing there, the threat is real." She huffed, "I suppose I'll include to absolutely not go testing things in that corridor in my letter back."

"Do that, dear." Vernon shivered, "How can that man, even if it's true and the warning _is _important, say things like that to children that young? Threatening painful death my bloody arse." He gathered his silverware onto his plate and moved it to the sink as penance for his language, Petunia seemed appeased.

"I'll have my mobile phone on me today," he said as he went to put on his shoes in the living room, "Petunia, call if anything happens with this 'Lupin' fellow at the bank. I'm a little worried about you meeting some strange man like this, even if he was a friend of your sister and her husband."

"Don't worry so much about me, Vernon," she said, "Axegut and Griphook will make sure that nothing untoward happens."

Vernon nodded once more before sighing, he couldn't argue there. The goblins had quite impressed him with their armor and weapons when they'd gone to Gringotts two days ago, as had the extent of his wife's finances with them.

"Remember to talk to the Polkiss girl about that nonsense at the driveway too." Petunia just shook her head in confusion, Tina Polkiss had been jumping on and off their driveway from the sidewalk for a couple evenings now, since Harry and Dudley left. Neighbors were noticing it and starting to ask questions.

"Alright Pet," he said a few minutes later, "my taxi just pulled up. Be careful driving the car today, dear."

Once her husband had left, Petunia went back and reread the end of Harry's letter. A proxy on the Wizengamot? Gringotts would be able to tell her what that was about before she met with Mister Lupin. It sounded like someone was _legislating _in her nephew's name and Dumbledore had arranged it.

_Unacceptable._

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Remus Lupin woke to the sound of an owl pecking at his window, he rolled over and let the thing in. It dropped the letter on the desk and perched on the back of the chair.

"I suppose you want a response then?" He asked the brown owl, it looked sort of like a Hogwarts owl. The bird had the gall to glare at him.

Remus made a point of slowly getting out of bed and putting on pants before sitting down the read the letter. The owl pecked him on the head and glided over to the headboard to wait. It was from Albus…

_"Remus,_

_ I have found myself in quite a predicament, old friend. I was wondering if you could take a sabbatical to return to Britain and help me with an investigation I have been forced to undertake? It seems a distant relative of the Potters is attempting to take control of young Harry's inheritance. So far they are hiding from my attempts to contact them but, thankfully, they are moving slowly. I fear bringing the Ministry into this, lest they force Harry from the safety of his home. My hope is that you could look into things while I am forced to manage the school, Harry was Sorted into Gryffindor at the Welcome Feast. His parents would have been proud. Perhaps you will get a chance to see Harry this year at school even._

_ Your Friend,_

_ Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore"_

_What to do?_ Remus thought to himself. If he ignored the letter and Albus sent Fawkes he would be in trouble. But at the same time he had promised not to correspond with the Headmaster at all until he had met this 'Ms. Acacia'.

"I think she will forgive me a prank on the old man." Remus said to himself as he began writing a short return letter, once he was done he duplicated it and put the copy and the letter from Albus aside and attached the one he had just written to the owl.

"Go on then." The owl flew out the window and Remus began preparing, both physically and mentally, for his meeting in only a few short hours.

At eleven-thirty he found himself entering a Gringotts conference room once again. There was an ornate table with refreshments set up in the middle. A pair of goblins sat on one side of the table at an end, each with their own stack of folders and account files in front of them.

_Interesting_, Remus thought as he was directed to sit across from the larger goblin. His enhanced senses were telling him that there was a woman disillusioned in the seat at the head of the table. By her smell, he assumed it was Lily's sister. The thought of Lily reminded him why he was here and he sat down, taking note that there was a vial of the truth serum from his last encounter with the goblins in front of him.

"Thank you for being prompt, Mister Lupin." The goblin began, "I am Senior Accounts Manager for the Potter accounts, Axegut." He sneered, barely concealing his teeth, "First, I must ask you to drink that truth potion and I will ask you whether you have corresponded with Albus Dumbledore in the last two days."

Remus took the potion and drank it without comment, accepting a sip of water to wash the taste down.

"Mister Lupin, have you, since receiving the picture of Harry Potter that Ms. Acacia sent to you, corresponded with Albus Dumbledore?" Axegut asked, clearly knowing the answer somehow.

"Yes." Remus responded without question as he reached into a coat pocket, "I have the letter he sent me this morning in my pocket, the only correspondence _from _him I have received in that time."

He could feel the truth serum directing his words when he spoke, but he didn't care. He had nothing to hide here.

Axegut quickly read the letter before muttering, "Rubbish," and flinging it away. Not coincidentally to land right in front of where the hidden woman was, and oriented for her to read it.

"I sent him a reply," Remus continued as he pulled out another small piece of parchment, "but I made a copy of it for you, I will swear that the text on this copy is verbatim what I sent to the Headmaster. I felt not responding at all would be risky, as he has been known to drop in on people with his phoenix when he needs to."

Axegut took this letter, much shorter, and after a brief glance decided to read it aloud to himself, "Headmaster Dumbledore, I regret to inform you that I am, myself, totally unavailable at the present time. I recently found myself discovering family troubles of my own while abroad. The only family he would have besides the obvious, that I'm aware of, is potentially in South America. Have you tried asking Harry himself? Your associate, Remus Lupin."

"Asking Harry indeed." The smaller goblin chuckled, "The old fool isn't allowed alone in a room with the boy. You couldn't have known that Mister Lupin, but I believe this is acceptable."

"Then may I be introduced to our final guest?" Remus asked, nodding his head at the unseen woman at the end of the table, "I believe it is Petunia Dursley? Lily's sister?"

The smaller goblin clicked his fingers and the woman shimmered into view, Remus' guess as to her identity was spot on.

"You have lycanthropy don't you?" Axegut asked him.

"Uhm, yes." Remus responded, still under the effects of the potion and unwilling to cause issues when this came out later, "Since I was five, I have tried very hard to hide it. But it let me sense her when I entered the room. She reminded me of Lily, so I assumed her sister."

"Pleased to meet you Mister Lupin." The woman said as she extended her hand after discreetly sniffing herself, which he accepted, turning attention back to her, "I am Petunia Dursley, Harry's Aunt. If you don't mind my asking? What is lycanthropy?"

Remus looked down uncomfortably and let go of her hand, "It's nice to meet you ma'am."

"If you would like to take the antidote Mister Lupin…" Axegut began.

"No." Remus interrupted him, "No, I should say this under the potion so there is no question. Ma'am, lycanthropy is a disease. Having it means that I'm a werewolf."

Petunia gasped and Remus winced. Of course she would be frightened, who wouldn't?

"You poor dear…" She whispered, "Mister Moony?"

"You… know?" He asked, incredulous.

"Lily told me that there was a werewolf attending the school after her second year." Petunia explained, "I was horrified at first, but Lily told me about how kind 'Mister Moony' was every day of the month _other than_ the full moon, and that you were just irritable that day. As well as the fact that you went to a secluded place and were locked away during those nights. She said you were one of her favorite study partners, but I never knew Mister Mooney was _you_. She talked about you separately, by name. I just never put two and two together. I don't think I would have on my own either, she told me 'Mister Lupin' was a bit of a prankster that ran with James. Not exactly 'study partner' material."

"You aren't scared? You aren't uncomfortable around me?" He asked.

"Oh not at all. I probably would have been had Lily not told me about you, but she said lycanthropy was just a 'furry little problem' that she was going to one day cure." Petunia had to stop, remembering Lily like that always made her emotional.

"Yes, I remember her promising that one day she would cure me." Remus comisserated, "She actually _did_ invent an improved version of Wolfsbane that relieves much of the after-transformation soreness the year after she graduated. Too bad it still cost half an average man's monthly salary to brew for one person."

"Mister Lupin, before we continue let us administer the counter to the truth potion. Your forthcomingness until this point shows that we need not worry about deception at this stage." Axegut interjected.

"Please also remember that you are _paying_ for this time, Ms. Acacia." Griphook added.

"What?" Remus asked, dumbfounded, "Ms. Acacia? How is that possible? Wait, Dumbledore is trying to figure out who Ms. Acacia is… but he never asked the woman _raising _Harry about her, er, you?"

"Please don't laugh for too long. Professor Mcgonagall needed almost five minutes to compose herself when she delivered Harry's Hogwarts letter."

That did it, "She knows too?" He began cracking up, "_She_ knows, and Albus is still reaching out to me to find some distant relatives?" He began howling with laughter, "And in all that, he still hasn't come and asked if anyone came 'round asking about Harry?"

If only the Marauders had been this good, they wouldn't have been caught as often. Though this almost said more about the Headmaster's blind spots than anything else.

"May I assume that being a werewolf is why you weren't considered to take care of Harry ten years ago?" Petunia asked without preamble once he'd regained his composure and taken the counter potion.

"Yes ma'am, for obvious reasons it's illegal for a werewolf to be the guardian of a child that isn't theirs." He answered sadly, "But if there is anything I can do for him, I will. I've begged Dumbledore for years to let me see Harry, if only just to tell him stories of his parents. Most recently in July when I asked if I could be the one to reintroduce him to the magical world."

"He would have loved that tremendously, and it would have been a sight better than the old man's plan to send Mister Hagrid to pick Harry up. Luckily cooler heads prevailed and Mcgonagall came instead." She chuckled again at that situation, "As for telling him stories of his parents? I was honestly hoping for that, Harry needs to hear stories of them in the magical world. Particularly his father. I could tell Harry about how great Lily was until the sun went out, but I only met James once or twice, and most of what Lily told me about him when she was in school wasn't exactly 'nice.'"

"If he had to grow up on stories of only one of them, though it pains me to say it, Lily was absolutely the better role model. We could get into trouble when she wasn't around." He responded, tears in his eyes at the memory of his friends, "If that is all you need of me, telling Harry about his parents, I still consider this time well spent. But I was under the impression that there was some actual service you needed of me."

"Among other things, I need, for lack of a better word at the moment, a bodyguard." The tall woman replied, "I need a wizard that I know will be on my side in disputes with other wizards because to be on my side is to be on Harry's side."

"Specifically," she continued, "someone willing to stand between the Headmaster and myself."

Remus nodded and she went on, "When I first discovered how he had mishandled Harry's inheritance I was furious. I wanted to confront the man and demand he take responsibility for it. All that money, and he never sent anything to us for taking care of Harry?" The werewolf in the room growled at that.

"I don't mean to say that it's 'about the money'," she appeased, "though to Axegut and Griphook it most certainly is."

The joke broke the tension, "I mean to say that my husband and I had just gotten our lives back into normalcy after our own son was born, he's only a month older than Harry. We weren't prepared for two children, and Vernon had to work a lot of extra hours to make up the slack. Dumbledore should have taken those things into account. Though had we not had Dudley we would have been fine."

"Was he the boy Harry was playing with in the picture?"

"Yes," she replied fondly, "we actually found out in July that he's a wizard too. The mail wards that Albus put on my home apparently stopped his letter from arriving on _his _birthday. The girl in the picture was Hermione Granger, Harry's best friend. She's a muggleborn, a little older than the boys but in the same year group."

"Anyways," she said to get back on topic, "my accounts advisor, Griphook," she indicated the goblin, "managed to convince me not to confront Dumbledore myself and demand a reckoning."

"How did he do that?" Remus asked.

"With the threat of one word." Remus looked confused as Petunia's face scrunched in obvious disgust, "_Obliviate_. He told me that wizards can strip your memories from you, and as a squib I would have no defense. If I confronted him as Ms. Acacia, he could simply make me forget that I was ever Ms. Acacia in the first place."

"I… understand your trepidation. While I would never think Albus capable of actually hurting someone, controlling information is like breathing to him. Especially if he thinks he's doing it for your own good." He thought for a moment, "Is there a reason that the _Senior_ Accounts Manager is here?"

"Pretty fast for a wizard." The goblin said as he rifled through a folder.

"When I became Harry's magical guardian, Dumbledore lost his de facto status as steward, as well as access to Harry's money. But I, and by extension Harry, did not _gain_ access. The only vault Harry can use is a trust vault with enough galleons to get him easily through school."

"You have no idea how glad I am that he doesn't have that much power anymore. Even if you haven't gotten the financial rights back yourselves." He returned with a sigh of relief.

"How do you mean?"

"According to the documentation I was shown a few days ago, some of the legislation he got passed with Potter family gold involved serious restrictions on werewolves. In fact, a law that Albus apparently _funded _through the Potter family, but publicly opposed on the floor of the Wizengamot, was the ultimate reason I found myself forced to leave the country. It's almost impossible for a werewolf to find work here under Ministry law, and almost any violation is a prison sentence. After that it was easy for the dark families to make it so that any crime of an even remotely violent nature is an automatic death penalty for a werewolf. Full moon or not." He shuddered, thinking of when he'd seen that law passed a few years ago.

"Not only that." Axegut added to Remus' rant, "You were right that it is about money for me," He nodded at Petunia, "I was forced to watch and smile as he took galleons from the vaults that _I _manage and use them to pass sanctions against Gringotts itself. I couldn't _prove _he wasn't spending the gold on behalf of Heir Potter to the kind of satisfaction that the Wizengamot would require, so my hands were tied."

"Then I walked in with Harry right beside me, him clearly amazed at all the magic, and you saw an out…" Petunia looked at the goblin, finally understanding some of the reasoning behind what had happened that day, "I always wondered why you were so keen to help me kick Dumbledore's legs from under him. It was revenge?"

"Indeed." Griphook replied evenly. When Petunia merely nodded, he smiled a toothless smile, this human was not to be underestimated.

"When I took over as magical guardian it became rather apparent that that man had neglected _everything_." Remus raised an eyebrow, "He froze almost all investments and fired all staff working on any property. He didn't _do _anything to the properties themselves, but he basically arranged that they would begin to fall apart on their own." She took another breathe, this was all too emotional for her, "It seems like he was setting it up for Harry to come of-age to _nothing_ from his parents except money."

"So you need me, on the financial side, because I'm a wizard and you aren't?" Remus asked, understanding, "You can be his magical guardian, but only a witch or wizard can be the Steward of a House. In your position you can only make decisions that are solely about Harry."

"That's right, Axegut informed me that you were extraordinarily close with James Potter, like a brother even, I feel that Harry and I can trust you to do right by him." Remus nodded, "If so, the paperwork for Harry to sign is already prepared and ready to be sent to Hogwarts. My sister spoke of you, as Mister Moony, as one of the only people in the whole of Hogwarts that could challenge her, intellectually. With that kind of praise, I hope you will find this doable."

"It would be my pleasure, ma'am. My being a werewolf isn't widely known, so it shouldn't raise issues, and you knowing about it and hiring me anyways satisfies all the laws about it. Is there anything in particular that Harry is concerned about?" He asked, noting that the goblins were creating various forms in their folders. He could already feel the blood quills, and began rubbing the back of his hand in anticipation.

"When he got to Hogwarts, he learned that there is a man sitting proxy for him on the Wizengamot," Both humans noticed the goblins sneer, "and Harry isn't entirely sure what to think of that."

"I must admit, I haven't kept abreast of who sits where in England. Do you know who the proxy is?"

"It's a Mister Amos Diggory." Petunia answered after a moment to think.

"WHAT!" Remus exclaimed, standing before he remembered his place and sat back down, breathing deeply to try and calm himself before he terrified Harry's aunt.

Petunia watched him, alarmed, but confident that if something were to happen then the goblins would protect her. The head seat she was in had some 'auto-portkey' enchantment on it that would whisk her away if she were attacked, according to Griphook.

"I take it there is something wrong with that?" Petunia asked, as calmly as she could.

"Amos Diggory is a well known creature bigot. He looks down on non human magical creatures like goblins, merfolk, and centaurs. But he _detests_ werewolves and vampires." He winced as he remembered why he hated Diggory more than most, "The laws forcing werewolves to disclose their condition to employers, with no protection of employment, were presented by him. They're the reason I had to leave, no one will hire a werewolf if they know. Prior to that, some jobs were such that we could explain the condition away, but after that law passed doing so meant life in Azkaban."

"I will write to Harry about it and let him know the situation." Petunia replied, "I don't think he will want someone like that representing him. What should I recommend he do about it?"

"He'll need someone to replace him with, since it can't be me." Remus demurred.

"Because of your affliction?" She asked, before smirking, "Once Harry meets you, I bet he makes the same promise my sister did about a cure." He raised an eyebrow at that but she continued, "Do you think you could investigate and find a suitable replacement soon?"

"I can definitely start. I'll begin by seeing what the Tonks' are doing I suppose. Andromeda could also help him with any questions he has about the upper crust of the magical world."

"Should I know who those people are?" Petunia asked.

"They are Harry's closest living relatives, after you, distant cousins. Andromeda Tonks was once Andromeda _Black_. The only member of the Black family, as it turns out, to ever spurn their family's Dark tendencies." He said gravely.

"We heard the story of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew the first time I brought Harry to Gringotts. It was also when we learned of what Albus had been doing with Harry's inheritance." Petunia shuddered and sighed before bitterly finishing, "If you can imagine, that was a _wonderful_ day."

"Well," Remus answered, detecting irritation in her tone, "Andromeda _truly _isn't dark. She was cast out of her family and disowned for marrying a muggleborn wizard a year ahead of her instead of the man her parents had arranged for her. They both became healers last I heard."

"Healers? Both?" Petunia perked up, family name forgotten, "Harry has wanted to be a healer or doctor ever since he learned that was what his mother was working to be."

"If you wouldn't mind, Mrs. Dursley, could we get lunch at the 'Leaky after we wrap up here? I would love to hear about Harry, and his friends."

It took almost an hour and a half to finish all the paperwork, and to discuss plans that should be enacted the moment the Stewardship was confirmed. By the end of it both Petunia and Remus were holding their aching hands and thankful for the murtlap essence the goblins provided to ease the pain.

"Any transaction of this magnitude should leave a mark on those involved." Axegut had said when Petunia asked why so many forms needed to be signed in blood at the conclusion of the meeting.

"Well, this certainly has." She responded, looking at the faint lines where the quill had drawn her own blood to write her name. It wasn't bad enough that an anti-scarring potion wouldn't make it invisible, at least.

"Will Harry have to sign anything with one of those quills?" She asked as they sealed up the letter to him, complete with an extra note from herself and Mister Lupin.

"A special quill that will vanish after use is being sent with the paperwork. The documentation must be signed one time by Heir Potter to enact the changes you have requested and to finalize Mister Lupin as Steward of the House of Potter." Axegut said with as much sympathy in his voice as he could muster. Which was not a lot.

"Could I add a reminder for him to go to the infirmary for murtlap after he's signed it?" She asked, there couldn't be a more innocent way to verify that her requests concerning her children's health would be honored by the school.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"SOUTH AMERICA!?" Albus shouted as he read the letter from Remus. There was no way he was going to be able to get away to South America any time before the Christmas hols. Perhaps it _was_ time to request a meeting with young Harry after all? Even if he would have to do it with Minerva present.

He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the boy had some kind of _snake _as his familiar. Hagrid had told him that they bought an owl in Diagon, so he assumed that was the boy's pet. He had been sorely tempted to insist the serpent be removed, Minerva had admitted that Harry had neglected to inform her of the nature of the thing before getting permission, but that would only serve to alienate him before Albus had even had a chance to start building a relationship. Besides, apparently the snake wasn't a dangerous breed at all, though he was _sure _that Mcgonagall was joking about it's colouration.

"What do you think Fawkes?" The bird watched him and sang softly, easing the old wizard's stress ever so slightly.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I'm not sure I would have been able to handle all of that without screaming for the hills." Remus confided once Petunia had finished telling him the tale of the day Professor Mcgonagall came to the Dursleys' home.

"It was almost too much. I owe Mcgonagall a lot for spending most of her day helping us." She agreed, "But I'm glad that we were able to confirm it, and we got her guardianship taken care of on the First."

"I'm sorry, what? Mrs. Dursley, did you file for magical guardianship of Miss Polkiss?" He asked, interested and confused.

"She and Hermione both." Petunia answered, "I learned quite a bit about how the magical world treats those with non magical parents. It's appalling. After presenting all the facts, both girls' parents were happy to sign."

"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that aspect of the magical world." He confessed, "But I will help you in any way I can. For Harry or any of his friends." Tom the barkeep came by with the bill, "I can get that Mrs. Dursley."

"Nonsense Mister Lupin," She returned, "Griphook told me you were struggling financially even before you told me of your condition and the restrictions you work under."

Petunia recognized the look of trepidation on the man's face. She remembered their time like in that situation, the year after Harry was left with them Vernon had hit a very tough time at work. They had been forced to accept the charity of their neighbors. It was one of the most demoralizing and embarrassing things they had ever had to do as a family.

"If it helps, Mister Lupin, think of it as an advance on your first paycheck?" She smiled, it had taken quite a while to agree on a salary for his services as Steward.

Axegut had shown data concerning the average salary, and Lupin had immediately tried to cut that number in half. Petunia was having none of it, and they had ultimately agreed to eighty percent of the average for a House Steward; or about four hundred galleons a month. According to Axegut, the cost would be a pittance of the money that they would have available to invest again once the House Accounts were reactivated.

"I suppose I can accept that, ma'am." He nodded.

"There's at least one more thing that needs to be done today." She said as she gave Tom some silver sickles to cover their lunch, "You need to know where our home actually _is_. According to Professor Mcgonagall, no adult wizard can find the house unless Vernon or I guide them there, willingly and intentionally, or the Headmaster himself does. So, if you have the time, my husband let me use the family car today and I can drive you there."

"I hadn't thought of that. I suppose that's the best way to go about things." He said as they got up and headed towards the front door.

The ride back from Diagon Alley was filled with stories of Harry's youth. Petunia confessed how she had hidden magic from Harry until he was older, which Lupin agreed with readily given the circumstances. He loved hearing about Harry's studies in potions and chemistry, as well as about Harry's prowess at football. Most wizards didn't care at all for muggle games, but he had found himself in the muggle world long enough to develop a taste for the larger team sports. Knowing that Harry had led a sort of study or reading group that evolved into an 'around-the-town' gang with his cousin had the man grinning maniacally. It sounded like Harry, Dudley, and Hermione were a few pranks away from becoming the New Marauders.

Petunia did not find that thought nearly as amusing as he did after he explained it, but she did concede that telling Harry some stories of his father's exploits with his friends in Hogwarts would be a wonderful Idea.

"Wow, that ward is something else." Lupin said as they pulled into the driveway, "I could feel the ward that protects against dark creatures conflicting with the harmful-intent ward as we crossed. But it seems like the scheme was designed to accommodate me."

"That's good," She said as she got out of the car, "I didn't know there was a separate ward for dark creatures, just the one to keep out wizards. Oh, Vernon is home early, I can introduce you before you leave." She pointed to the telly through the window as they approached, showing the news.

"I have plenty of time," He said offhandedly, "I have that room at the Leaky Cauldron for another two nights at least. Once we have access to the rest of the Estate information I can look for a place to stay more permanently. There must be some out-of-the-way worker's building I can use."

"We really must work on your self-esteem, Mister Lupin." Petunia huffed.

He smiled, "Your sister said that too, often. But actually I would be looking for a place like that so that I have somewhere safe to transform."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I'd already forgotten." She apologized as she opened the door, "Vernon, company." She called.

"I've just returned to the living room, Pet." Her husband called back.

Petunia led her guest into the room behind her. Vernon, seeing this put down his corned beef sandwich and wiped his hands, "Sorry, sorry. I thought she'd mean the Polkisses from down the street. Vernon Dursley, a pleasure."

"Remus Lupin, likewise." He replied as he shook the large man's hand. _He must weigh almost nineteen stone_, Remus mused to himself. This man was the physical opposite of his wife.

Then a smell caught his nose that shocked him.

"Ma'am, sir, are you aware that you seem to have one or more snakes hiding in your home?" He asked as he slowly walked around the room, sniffing.

"What's this then?" Vernon asked, slightly irritated at the man's demeanor.

"Right now? Already?" Petunia asked, jumping onto her couch and frantically looking around, "He's only been gone two days."

"The smell seems a couple days old, but its powerful. Like it's been in here for a while." He replied, "What did you mean 'he's only been gone two days'?"

"Oh, of course. It must be Najash you smell. Strange, I never noticed any kind of odor. Did you Vernon?" She turned and asked her husband as Lupin's mind spun away.

"No, if I had I'd probably have rethought letting the boy keep it." Came the gruff reply.

"It must be because he's a werewolf then." She said to herself as she got back down onto the floor.

"A what?" Vernon's heart stopped, "What?"

"It's no problem, Vernon. He was a werewolf when he was at school with Lily. Think of it like a disease that flares up once a month, I suppose. He's safe except the one night." She waved a hand at him to keep him from protesting.

"Mrs. Dursley." Remus began, "What did you mean? Who is Najash?"

"Harry's snake." She replied simply, "Lovely little thing, I've been paranoid for months that when he left I'd have to contend with snakes and rats in my garden again." She sighed, "But he took the little guy to Hogwarts with him. At first he was joking about cheating on tests by asking Najash the answers, but I told him he'd have to send the snake home if Hermione caught him trying it."

"'_Asking'_ Najash for the answers?" Lupin was getting worried. What had happened to Harry? Was he a parselmouth? How?

Petunia covered her mouth, "Shoot." She glanced at Vernon for support before realizing he didn't even know that snake-speaking was considered a 'bad' thing in Britain.

"Yes. Harry has been able to talk to snakes for as long as he can remember." _Honesty is the best policy_, she thought to herself as she spoke.

"But… that's impossible." He uttered, "There aren't any parselmouths in Harry's family tree, and there's no way he inherited it from Lily. No offense."

"I don't know about any of that," Vernon offered from where he'd returned to his chair and sandwich, "but I know the snake's no problem. Saved my wife twice, it has."

"Yes, I can't believe I forgot to mention him in the car, Mister Lupin, the week I accidentally got myself sick from potion ingredients it wasn't just Harry and Vernon that saved me. Najash apparently found the bezoars that I kept and told Harry which ones weren't good anymore."

"So it has some kind of intrinsic knowledge of magic?" Remus asked. He had never heard of that before. Granted, he'd never met a parselmouth that didn't want to kill him before either.

"As far as we can tell. He can identify what potion ingredients are generally used for by smell or something. He also knew what my wiggentree in the back yard was, and what it was for." She declared proudly.

"Very interesting… Is the snake itself magical? Many magical snakes are inherently very dangerous to non magicals." Petunia was beginning to look irritated at Remus, and he instantly regretted the assertion.

"Najash is anything but dangerous. He is as protective of us, and especially Harry, as any dog would be." She said icily, brooking no argument, "He's also a non magical breed. Hermione looked it up in an encyclopedia."

"Alright ma'am, I only wanted to make sure." Remus placated her as he held his hands up in surrender.

"Petunia," Vernon said as he looked out the window, "The school bus passed by a minute ago, and now Tina is back at the driveway again. Go talk some sense into her would you?"

Remus watched, bemused, as Petunia rushed out to stop a girl from jumping onto the driveway, then back onto the sidewalk, then repeat. His bemusement turned to shock and fear when the child waved at an elderly couple that seemed to be questioning her and they both turned and left with blank stares on their faces right as Petunia closed the door behind her. Clear signs of a confundus charm.

"Mrs. Dursley! Wait!" He exclaimed as he chased the woman outside, discreetly palming his wand as he went.

"What is the problem?" Petunia asked as she turned back to look at him from the porch, "It's just Tina Polkiss, I told you about her."

Remus merely nodded and walked around Petunia, keeping his eyes trained on the girl, "Miss Polkiss? I'm Mister Lupin, a friend of Harry's parents."

The girl had seemed wary of him until then, but perked up in recognition, "Auntie Petunia was going to meet you today at the bank!"

Petunia couldn't help but smile again. Since the paperwork was signed at Gringotts a few days ago the girl had taken to calling Petunia "Auntie."

"Yes, that's right. Could I ask you a question, Miss? What were you doing just then? Why are you jumping over that crack like that?" He had an odd suspicion that he knew, that would be about where the ward line was.

"I'm trying to hold the tingle." She replied cheerfully as she backed up and jumped over the threshold again.

Remus stood back and, without taking eyes off the child, whispered to Petunia, "Are you completely positive that that is Tina Polkiss?" At her nod he continued, "Ask her something only the real Tina would know."

"Tina," Petunia called, slightly confused but willing to go through to motions as she knelt down to be eye level with the girl and spoke softly, "could you tell Mister Lupin here who it was that held you and made you feel better the night we began to suspect you were a witch?"

"Huh?" She responded, puzzled, "It was Harry. I was so sorry that I had snuck around behind him like that and that he was gonna hate me! But he didn't." She paused for a moment, taking in Lupin's contemplative expression, "Is something wrong Auntie Petunia?"

There was worry etched on her face, was she in trouble now that Harry wasn't here? Had he been the only one that forgave her?

"This is definitely Tina, Mister Lupin," She eyed him menacingly, "Please explain why you felt the need to scare her like this."

"She performed a memory altering spell on that couple right before you walked outside." He whispered to her, eliciting a gasp, before turning back to the little girl and asking, "Miss Polkiss, Tina, what did you do to that couple that was here a minute ago? They looked like they were asking you why you were hopping like that, then…?"

"Um, I told them it was nothing special and asked them to just ignore me." She replied.

"And they did." Lupin concluded, "ignore you I mean."

The girl nodded, smiling obliviously. Remus let it go, better that she didn't go around _intentionally _messing with muggle's memories. Her accidental magic must have worked like that because she already knew memory magic was possible. But why would it answer so quickly?

"When you said you were trying to 'hold the tingle', you meant your magic? What does that mean?"

As he asked, Tina jumped into the ward once more, but this time she straightened up with a focused grin on her face as she held up her hand. Remus could see sweat forming on her brow as she pointed at one of the stone pavers leading to the porch.

"Auntie, I got it!" She cried as the paver rose into the air and hovered, perfectly stationary, three feet above the ground, "See! I really can do magic!" She tittered happily.

"Tina!" Remus exclaimed as he glanced around to ensure no one was watching, "Be careful, it is very easy to drain yourself using that spell when you are just starting!"

His warning was unnecessary, as Tina guided the paver through a circle around 'Auntie Petunia' before putting it back where it came from. Remus was beyond stunned, any normal underage witch would have dramatically overpowered a spell like that. Likely fatiguing themselves in the process. Her control must be amazing.

The girl in question was grinning as brightly as the sun, "I beat Hermione!" she said excitedly, "She couldn't get any magic to work before they left for school!"

"Sweet Merlin." Remus sighed in awe as he took in the girl's exuberance, "I haven't seen someone that natural at wandless magic since Lily."

The girl shrieked happily at that, jumping up and down in her excitement. Clearly he'd said something right, "Let's go inside and see if you can do that again, hmm?" The wizard asked.

Vernon went upstairs to do paperwork when the three came back inside. He still had trouble with magic, even if he was getting better.

For the first few minutes she wasn't able to do anything other than make the china gently rattle, but after Remus advised her to stop and focus for longer before 'doing' she was able to levitate the entire tea set straight up into the air. She giggled happily at her work even as she began to tire. Ten seconds later she faltered as her arm dropped, Remus whipped out his wand and caught the china before it shattered on the floor.

"That was truly astounding Miss Polkiss." Remus said once he was sure she was merely tired, "As I said, I haven't seen a natural talent for wandless magic like that since Lily Potter."

"Can you teach me to be better?" She asked, her best pout turned up to one hundred percent.

"If Mrs. Dursley wants me to, then I will." He said firmly, before turning to Petunia, "I do think it would be a good idea, though. Her control over her magic is, frankly, shocking. Any other child would have knocked themselves out lifting that stone outside, levitation is very easy to overdo."

He looked back at Tina and raised an eyebrow, "I don't think telling her to not try any more magic is going to work," she grinned and shook her head, mouthing 'nope' with a pop of her lips, "in which case she needs to have someone experienced nearby to help in case she accidentally does something she can't undo herself."

"That… makes sense." Petunia returned as she watched Tina, barely able to contain her excitement, "I'll call Angela, her mother, tonight and ask if she minds if Tina perhaps had some basic lessons in magical control."

She pursed her lips as she thought over it for a moment longer, "Actually, is it legal for students to practise magic outside of school if they have an adult wizard tutoring them or something? I remember Lily moaning each summer that she would fall out of practise not being allowed to use her wand."

"That's actually a common way that purebloods get around the underage magic restrictions," Petunia cocked an eyebrow at his response, "the usual practise is for a parent to register as their child's tutor, then the child can cast magic all they want as long as they are in the same general area. Such as the same household. Though they still have to wait until eleven to get their first wand. Incidentally, wandless magic like what Tina was doing is considered the same as accidental by the Ministry."

"But that's not fair." Petunia breathed, before smiling, "Though it makes the three of them being ahead of their peers even more remarkable."

At Remus interested expression she continued, "Hermione found a foreign book about wandless magic at Flourish and Blotts, the three children followed the instructions in it for 'feeling their magic' once they had their wands, and apparently they were able to levitate the book itself without wands after they had cast the spell a few times with them."

"Remarkable." Remus said, "That is more or less what Tina here was doing outside. Every time she passed through the ward line it 'pinged' against her magic, causing it to flare for a moment. A similar thing happens when one picks up their wand… but _feeling_ that should be next to impossible for the untrained. These wards I understand though, they are crazily strong. I'm sure it was almost like a little electric shock every time she passed over the line."

Tina nodded, that was exactly what it felt like, "Hermione said she thought she could use the ward to feel her magic the same way she used her wand, but didn't because Harry and Dudley can't feel it at all and she didn't think that was fair."

"But you didn't think so because _you_ didn't have a wand?" He asked good naturedly, "Spectacular. I can't explain Harry and Dudley not feeling the ward at all, I'll have to research it some, but the three of them being able to feel their magic with their wands is amazing. Your ability to reign in and control your magic without a wand to help is equally so. When you moved that paver I thought it was power. But it's not, you just don't waste any energy it seems."

He thought for a moment, "But can I ask you to please not use your magic to affect people's minds or memories like you did earlier? I'm sorry for scaring you earlier, Tina, but when I saw that confundus spell I worried you might turn it on Mrs. Dursley on accident. Mind affecting magic is very hard. I assume it was accidental, but even then it can be dangerous, much more than just levitating stones. The magical hospital has an entire wing for people whose minds are hurt by magic."

Tina nodded gravely, she didn't want to hurt people. Even by accident.

"Oh dear, I wonder what she wants?" Petunia muttered as she chanced a look out the front window.

"Maybe she saw me and wants to invite us into her coven." Tina said, trying to affect a spooky voice and break the tension Mister Lupin had invited into the room.

"What?" Remus asked, turning around, "Is there another magical here?"

"No," Petunia clarified, "The children joke and call her 'The Witch of Little Whinging', she's the town's crazy cat lady I suppose. An elderly widow who lives a couple streets over, Arabella Figg." She waved out her window to the frail looking woman standing on the street curb, who turned and hurried down the road.

"That's odd." Petunia said as she watched.

"Figg!" Remus jerked to his feet once more, "I know that name! Arabella Figg is a squib whose husband worked for Dumbledore during the war! I know for a fact that she _spied _for him during the war too. If she lives here it's on Dumbledore's orders."

"Tina, go home. Now." Petunia said as she rushed to the door to put her shoes back on, "Remus, we need to catch her. We aren't ready for Dumbledore to come here."

"Yes Ma'am." He said as he followed her out the door.


	10. Chapter 9: The Potions Master

The Potions Master

Harry pushed his eggs around on his plate. He was both excited and nervous for today, his first day of Potions class. Harry had been ready for this class ever since he was old enough to understand what having magic really meant.

As long as you were careful, potions were one of the only aspects of magic that could be used to help non magicals without violating any laws, and that was what Harry wanted to do more than anything. He was sure that if the magical world introduced itself to the non magical one through something wonderful like medicine, then it would let the two interact more. Then he wouldn't be pushed to choose his mother's world or his aunt's. A future problem he had recently become aware of after overhearing several older students in the common room talking to each other about how disappointed they were that Harry was so 'muggle'.

_How 'disappointed' will they be when they found out I'm a Speaker?_ He wondered absently, bringing his thoughts back to this morning with Najash. His little friend had been slow and sleepy for the last three days, but this morning he had woken Harry to inform him that he was hungry. A couple lizards from a container with a stasis charm sated him, but grossed out Dean and Finnigan when they woke up to the snake devouring his second treat.

The two boys were sitting on the other side of the Gryffindor table this morning after that, neither seemed to have too much of an appetite.

"I wonder where the Headmaster is?" Hermione asked, breaking Harry out of his musing.

"Huh?" He muttered, looking up at the Head table to find the Headmaster's golden 'throne' empty, "Weird, no idea."

"What'd I miss?" Dudley asked, sitting down at the same time, his face still flushed from his late shower. He and Justin had run a couple rings around the lake that morning to start keeping in-shape. Justin overestimated himself though, and was still recovering downstairs in the dorm. Good thing there was no flying this week so they had first period free that day.

At eight the mail delivery came as it did every morning, this time with a large Gringotts eagle owl delivering a trio of letters to Harry. He recognized one by the Gringotts seal as being some kind of official document and set it aside. Aunt Petunia had sent one from 'Ms. Acacia' with the note _'Me First!_' under the address so he went ahead and opened that one to read.

"_Harry,_

_I have some wonderful news for you. The friend of your father's that I was attempting to track down ended up having a rather understandable reason for not being in your life until now, though he is back in England now and excited to meet you. Without saying anything sensitive, the man turned out to also be 'Mister Moony', the one from your mother's journal. I'm sure you will remember what that means and keep it between Hermione and yourself._

_He has enlightened me further concerning some of the things that were done with your family's money, and I have asked him to take up a position where he is effectively working for you that will let him start to fix things. In addition, this should let you have access to some family heirlooms, as well as begin to restore your family's __various_(yes Harry, multiple)_ homes. The paperwork from Gringotts needs to be signed to give him authority to access your estates, please do so with the quill they sent in the envelope, AFTER finishing breakfast, then go to the infirmary to get your hand looked at. You'll understand. _

_With Love from your Aunt and Uncle at home,_

Ms._ Acacia"_

"That's awesome!" Harry said, smiling as he finished reading the letter.

"What's that?" Hermione asked from beside him, it was taking all of her willpower not to read the letter over his shoulder, but she knew it could have been Gringotts business, so she restrained herself.

"My father ran with three other guys when he was at school, but two of them are gone," Harry frowned, remembering what had happened to his father's other two friends: one dead, the other in prison for betrayal and murder, "Well, Aunt Petunia found the last friend and convinced him to come home. Get this Hermione, he turned out to also be 'Mister Moony', _that one_."

Harry grinned as realization flashed over his friend's face, the story of a werewolf who made it all the way through seven years of school was very central to the pair's desire to discover new cures and ways of healing people. His mother's journal had a few chapters dedicated to her friend and how unfair the world would treat him if they knew of his affliction, and neither student felt that was right at all.

A few seats over, twin redheads whispered to themselves as they observed the exchange. There's no way that Harry Potter was talking about _that_ Mister Moony, was there?

"Uh oh," One of the Weasley twins sang out a minute later as an old, feeble owl flew into the Great Hall a few minutes late.

"Mum sent a howler!" The other twin said as the bird circled the hall before finally coming to a stop at the Slytherin table.

"I'm surprised it took her this long, Errol must have been delivering something for dad." The first mused.

"What's a howler?" Dudley asked the twins, though he need not have as the red envelope answered his question itself when it opened itself and began shouting in a woman's voice.

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY! I HEARD FROM YOUR BROTHER WHAT HAPPENED AT THE SORTING! HOW DARE YOU DISGRACE OUR FAMILY LIKE THIS? I WON'T HAVE A SNAKE IN MY HOUSE-"

The tirade of abuse was cut short as the letter burst into flames in front of a crying Ronald, Professor Snape had stood and incinerated it with a gesture from his wand.

"Two nights of detention with me, Weasley, for broadcasting family business in such a shameful way." The dour man growled as he sat back down. The redhead in question merely nodded as he stared blankly at the ashes of the howler.

"That… was terrible." Dudley said, shocked, "I'm glad Snape burned it-"

"Professor Snape." Hermione corrected, to eye rolls from the others.

"Yeah," Dudley pressed over her, "I'm glad he burned it, but why would he give detentions for that. His _mother_ should be in trouble, not him. That was horrible!"

"That was pretty tame," Fred, or possible George, spoke up.

"Yeah," the other continued, "we put a timed switching spell on all the girls toilet seats on the third floor right before spring term ended."

"Switched them with 'enchanted' amulets we'd sold to some Slytherins earlier." The first picked up seamlessly, "We set it to go off in the middle of lunch. Wouldn't have been caught but one of the amulets triggered and failed and the teachers examined it."

"Mum went ballistic, three howlers sent about ten minutes apart, she actually rented the owls to do it too!. No one's ears were working by first period."

"So this year we're planning to look at ways of pranking that don't leave a magic signature." His brother finished.

"You should look into potions." Harry offered, to Hermione's horror, as he examined the third envelope, "Something like a colour changing potion for skin could be funny, as long as it's reversible you know."

"Thats."

"Actually pretty good."

"Not thinking big enough though." The twins ping-ponged.

Harry thought about opening the letter from Moony, Remus Lupin, but decided to wait until after class. It wouldn't do for his mind to be on other things in his first ever official potions class. Instead, he ate a few more bites of eggs and another piece of bacon before opening the letter from Gringotts, careful about the quill his aunt had told him would be in the envelope as well.

Harry read through the papers from Gringotts as best he could, Hermione and Dudley running interference on each side as the nearby people became interested in his official-looking mail. There was a lot of legal jargon that he wasn't totally sure on, but he recognized the names. Apparently the title his aunt wanted to give Mister Lupin was 'Steward of the House of Potter', with it he'd be responsible for maintaining the physical and financial properties of the House. All Harry had to do was sign on the bottom line with the quill that Gringotts had sent and return the paperwork with the owl, which was still standing on the table waiting.

Harry took the quill, puzzled by the little message tied to it, 'No ink required', and set it to the page, dry. As soon as he began writing he winced in pain, but quickly finished signing his name to the line before dropping the quill as it dissolved into mist. Turning his hand over, he saw his own signature scratched lightly into his hand, bleeding.

"Now I see why she said to go to the infirmary." Harry mumbled as he quickly sent off the signed paperwork and gathered his things, Hermione with him.

"Are you gonna open the last letter?" One of the twins asked hopefully, having not noticed the small line of blood on Harry's hand.

"It's from one of my parents' friends," Harry responded, "I'm planning to read it tonight when I have time, you know?" The twins nodded, Harry was puzzled to find them looking somehow let-down.

"Harry, let's hurry and get you to the infirmary so it won't make us late for class." Hermione said as she pulled him up and guided him out.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The potions classroom separated the students into pairs for each workstation. This would have been fine except that both Slytherin _and_ Gryffindor had an odd number of students. After Harry paired with Hermione, and the other Gryffindor girls paired together, Neville ended up odd-man-out. His partner, by default, became the Slytherin outcast, Ronald Weasley.

_At least they'll be nearby_, Harry thought as the two sat next to Hermione and he. Neville had already told them that he wasn't very good as brewing potions, he'd apparently tried back home and melted several cauldrons, a problem that Harry figured probably came down to inattentiveness most of the time, he'd only known Neville for less than a week and he'd already proven to be slightly forgetful and scattered.

The doors whipped open as Professor Snape entered the classroom, his robes billowing around him in a rather intimidating fashion, and slammed shut behind him. He scanned the room as he got to the front, doing a double take when he saw red and green at the same station, before locking onto Harry and fixing a scowl on his face.

"Ah, Mister Potter," He drawled as he took roll, "out newest _celebrity_." Several of the Slytherins snickered and the Professor continued calling roll.

"Tell me, Mister Potter." Professor Snape suddenly asked after giving a rather insulting speech about how they were all dunderheads once he'd confirmed they were all there, "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

As Harry looked the Professor in the eye, it seemed like he was staring at black, empty pits, "I'm not sure, sir. It's probably some form of poison considering it has asphodel root in it."

Snape frowned, "Thought you wouldn't pick up a book before coming to class, Potter? Try again, where would I look if I needed to find a bezoar?

Harry grinned internally, "Since there are poisons, as well as toxic ingredients, on the curriculum I would assume you could find one in one of those cabinets," he gestured to the ingredient cabinets at the back of the room, "but in the wild you can find one in the stomach of a goat."

Harry immediately regretted that, how was he supposed to convince Professor Snape to let him bring Najash to class like that?

"A point from Gryffindor for your cheek, Mister Potter. One more try, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" The Professor hissed.

"Uhm. I'm not sure I understand sir." Harry answered with a puzzled look, "They're the same plant."

Snape scowled once more, "Indeed, they are in fact the same plant, which is also known as 'aconite'. Asphodel and wormwood are components of 'The Draught of Living Death', a potion which puts the imbiber into a sleep from which they cannot awaken. A bezoar is a stone that can cleanse most poisons or toxins and, as Potter said, can be found in the stomach of a goat." He looked out at the rest of the class, "Well? Why aren't you writing this down?"

Professor Snape didn't get any better as the class moved on. His method of 'teaching' was to simply swipe his wand at the blackboard, revealing written instructions for the potion they were making. Afterwards he prowled the classroom, criticizing even the slightest mistake in preparing the ingredients.

He hovered over Harry and Hermione intermittently, trying to find something to dock a point for, but the pair had made the Boil-Cure potion from scratch several times before and knew what they were doing. The same could not be said for the table beside them, as Neville seemed to lose points for both his partner's and his own mistakes left and right.

"Neville, wait!" Harry shouted, too late to stop his friend from adding porcupine quills while their cauldron was still over the flame.

Knowing what was about to happen from experience back home Harry reached out as he stood up and yanked Neville away from the workstation right as the cauldron bubbled over and began dissolving into a heap of slag, spilling its unfinished contents over Neville's lower legs. Weasley, who had jumped away the moment Harry shouted, got away clean.

"Idiot boy! You didn't take the cauldron off the flames!" Snape shouted as he ran over, "Potter! You obviously knew what was going to happen! Why didn't you say something sooner? Ten points from Gryffindor!"

"Sorry Neville, I wasn't fast enough." Harry said, ignoring Snape as he made sure that his friend wasn't in serious danger.

Neville was beginning to silently cry as his shoes and the lower part of his robes dissolved in the potion, causing his feet and legs to break out in painful looking blisters.

Snape groaned at the sight of it, "Weasley, you're excused for today, we'll make up this class in one of your detentions. Take Longbottom to the Hospital Ward."

Ronald Weasley went to help Neville up from where Harry had him, but hesitated when Harry glared at him.

"Don't worry Harry, I'll see you at lunch yeah?" Neville said as he fought to stand up and walk out with the redhead supporting him, "My fault anyways."

The rest of the class went by relatively without incident. Though Harry lost a total of five

points, one at a time, for scowling at the teacher. Something he couldn't help after the careless way the man had dealt with Neville's accident. 'Take the potion off the flames' wasn't even a proper step in the instructions on the blackboard, it was an addendum to the step right before adding the quills.

When Harry and Hermione presented their potion at the end of the double period the Professor studied it for a full minute, over twice as long as anyone else, before scowling once more and giving it an 'Exceeds Expectations' grade. Malfoy's potion, which was the wrong consistency and too clear, somehow received the arbitrarily higher grade of 'Outstanding' and Harry no longer doubted what the others had been telling him.

This teacher was the worst.

In the end, Harry decided to wait at least one more class before asking Snape if he could bring Najash. He already had permission from Professors Sprout and Flitwick. Professor Mcgonagall had advised against it for her class; and Harry agreed, as animal transfiguration was on the syllabus and a misfired transfiguration could injure the snake more readily than a human. He didn't even need to ask Professor Quirrell, part of that class involved the students casting spells at each other. Harry wasn't going to risk his littlest friend getting struck by something that could hurt him.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"It's a bit soon to be seeing you back here, Mister Potter." Madame Pomfrey, the matron of the hospital ward, said with a stern voice but a wry smile, as he and Hermione entered the ward, "I already composed a report for your guardian about this morning. I'm not going to need to send another am I."

"No ma'am," Harry replied, "I'm just here to check on Neville this time, thank you though."

At that point he noticed Neville lying on a bed with his legs covered in a boil paste. He squinted at the paste through his glasses.

"Madame Pomfrey, isn't that boil paste the wrong colour?" He asked turning back to the elderly witch. He hadn't expected the school to use subpar supplies _here_ of all places, he'd heard rumours about the school's flying broomsticks though.

"You like potions, do you?" She asked, carefully studying his face, "That's a faster acting version; but it can't be used repeatedly over a short time, it starts to mess with the skin's natural colour quite permanently. It's why each first year class only has one double session of potions each week, incidentally."

"What's it called? How do you make it?" Harry asked her excitedly.

"How long do you have to wait between applications?" Hermione added.

"Oh my!" Madame Pomfrey exclaimed, "I'm not used to students taking such an interest in the intricacies like that. Most students just want to be set right and forget about it."

"Well, I wanted to be a doctor until I learned about magic. Then I wanted to be a healer too." Harry said as he walked over to check on Neville, "You alright buddy?"

Madame Pomfrey looked over to Hermione, her question clearly visible on her shocked face.

The first year nodded and said, "Me too, both of my parents are dentists. That's a kind of muggle healer that focuses on teeth. Since I was old enough to think about things like that I wanted to be like my parents. I thought being a witch meant I'd have to change that until I met Harry."

Meanwhile, Neville was telling Harry how his legs and feet didn't hurt anymore and that he would be able to leave in time for the end of lunch.

"Where's Weasley?" Harry asked, finally realizing the annoying redhead was absent.

"He left after he got me here. He wanted to see if he could start eating early if he showed up to lunch before time." Neville answered.

"That jerk. He couldn't stay and at least make sure you were alright?" Harry muttered.

Harry and Hermione waited for Neville to be able to walk before heading down to lunch, where the entire Hufflepuff first year was sitting at the Gryffindor table. Apparently that _was_ within the rules.

"Told you he was terrible." Dudley said after the three late Gryffindors had related what happened in their Potions class to him.

"Yeah," Harry reluctantly agreed, "It was hard to imagine that there could be a class worse than Binns'."

Everyone glanced at Hermione, waiting for her to correct him, "What?" She asked, "He's _dead_, and all he does is read random passages from the book. He didn't even call roll from _this year_."

She huffed, frustrated, "Not even I would call _him _a professor."

Harry and Dudley laughed, then stopped when she continued, "But you two know that _Hogwarts: A History_ is an assigned book right? Now you HAVE to read it. If you really can't pay attention next period, read that instead of sleeping."

This elicited groans from the table, she never turned off.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Neville's Grandma had written him Friday morning, rather cross, and informed him that she would be in the castle on Saturday. She wanted to meet Harry Potter, who would dare to suggest Neville wasn't worthy of her son's wand, which Harry had no problem with if it meant helping his new friend and estranged godbrother.

This led to Harry playing chess with Neville in Professor Mcgonagall's office immediately after breakfast on Saturday while they waited. When the fireplace flared up bright and green, unexpectedly, Harry yelped and tumbled backwards out of the chair he had been resting on two feet.

The regal woman who emerged from the floo brushed a bit of ash off her shoulder as she looked down at Harry, struggling to calm his breathing, "Is everything alright in here?" She asked imperiously.

Harry took two more deep breaths while Neville watched him, worried, before responding, "Yes, ma'am. The fireplace surprised me." He paused and looked down, embarrassed, "I don't do well with flashing green lights sometimes. No idea why." He admitted, "I'd seen people use the floo but… I've never been surprised by it before, you know?"

The ancient witch's eyes grew wide as she took in his scarred forehead and realized what he probably meant. Neville, meanwhile had bent down to help Harry to his feet.

"You alright now?" Neville asked as Harry took his hand and steadied himself. Harry nodded shakily.

"Yeah, thanks."

"Mister Potter, Madame Longbottom, I shall step into the other room there in case you need me." Professor Mcgonagall said, her gaze carefully taking in Harry's emotional state as she took the stack of homework she was grading with her out of the room.

"Er," Neville seemed awkward now that Mcgonagall wasn't in the room, "Grandmother, this is Harry Potter. Harry, My Grandmother, Madame Augusta Longbottom."

Harry bowed slightly to the imposing woman, it somehow just seemed right. She nodded back, clearly pleased.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister Potter. Neville has told me a little about you."

They spoke for a while about how the last week had gone, carefully dodging the issue of Neville's wand. She tried asking Harry about the place he grew up, but Harry wasn't willing to say anything other than that he was raised in the muggle world with his cousin Dudley.

"So, you think that my grandson can't use his father's wand?" She finally asked, raising an eyebrow in condescension.

"That's right ma'am, we can prove it too." Harry offered.

"Young man, I will not lie. The only reason I agreed to come here and discuss this when Neville asked is because he said _you_, the Boy-Who-Lived," Harry winced at the title, "told him to do it."

She paused, puzzling over Harry's reaction, "In that same letter," she continued, "he said that you were capable of wandless magic on your first day. Would you show that to me?"

Harry sighed as he thought about that, "Alright ma'am."

He reached his hand out to the table beside Madame Longbottom's chair, gripped his magic tightly, and gestured with two fingers for the table to rise. It wobbled as it did, but rose about three feet into the air before Harry put it back down unsteadily.

"That was remarkable young man." Madame Longbottom finally said, _I wonder if he realizes that he forgot the incantation too_, "Now. Tell me about Neville. Your personal talent does not excuse the insult you seem to have made against my grandson."

"It's not like that, Gran." Neville said.

"He's right, ma'am. I never said he wasn't '_worthy of'_ or '_up to'_ using his father's wand." Harry agreed, "But when I was in Ollivanders and got my wand he said 'the wand chooses the wizard'. He said it a few times, and when we were looking for my wand it over half an hour of trying them to find one that worked and it still wasn't _my_ wand. My cousin took over an hour!"

Harry leaned over and reached into his bookbag, coming back up with the wand box that contained his holly wand, as Neville pulled out his father's wand from his robes. Madame Longbottom patiently watched as her grandson attempted to light his wand, then to conjure water into a cup that was on Mcgonagall's desk. Both attempts ended in abject failure.

"Now watch this." Harry said as he handed Neville his spare wand.

The difference was undeniable. Neville wasn't incanting the spells differently, and he wasn't getting any of his wand movements wrong before. But his magic was much stronger and more focused when he used the second wand. After demonstrating, Neville put the wand back in the case and Harry stowed it away.

"I've been using Harry's extra wand since lunch on the first day of class, Gran. Without it I would probably already have flunked out or something. I couldn't get even a single spell to work with dad's wand." Neville confessed once he was finished.

"Some other time I would love to hear the story of how and why you have two wands, Mister Potter." Madame Longbottom said as she watched him put the box back in his book bag, "I must confess that I did not take this as seriously as I should have. For a long time the family wasn't sure if Neville was magical at all… I suppose I wanted him to be able to draw on his father's strength to help him, since he seemed to have such a rocky start.."

They spoke for a short while longer about school, and Harry and Neville's parents. But before long Madame Longbottom took her son through the floo to Diagon Alley, leaving Harry to head back to Gryffindor and meet with his other friends.

Najash wanted to go outside.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

That morning when Harry woke up, Najash had had his head stuck out from under his pillow and resting on top of it, watching his wizard sleep. After saying he didn't need more food yet, the red and gold serpent had asked Harry to take him outside at some point today. After telling them at breakfast, Parvati had been excited for the chance to finally meet the kingsnake and Hermione was looking forward to spending some time outside, reading.

Parvati had also invited her sister Padma, who wanted to meet Najash and hear Harry Speak as well. Just outside the front gates they found Dudley and Justin kicking a football back and forth, after Dudley promised to show Justin something cool the two followed the Gryffindors towards the Black Lake.

As they approached the lake Harry noticed a small stream that went by the greenhouses and Hagrid's cabin that wasn't too deep and moved slowly. He led the group that way, to a spot behind the greenhouses where the ground was low and moist from the nearby water, but not swampy at all.

"What are we looking at then?" Justin said, realizing that he seemed to be the only one who didn't know why they were headed to a spot behind the greenhouses where no one else could see them.

Harry looked at the boy before glancing back at Dudley.

"Don't worry, Harry." Dudley looked at Justin, "You aren't afraid of snakes are you? It's not poisonous."

"Venomous." Hermione corrected. Dudley rolled his eyes while his back was to her.

"Eh, actually I'm not the biggest fan." Justin confessed, backing up, "Does your cousin have one or something?"

"Yeah, he's pretty great honestly." Dudley said, "He's killed or ran off a few other snakes that slithered into my mum's garden."

"Uh, maybe some other time?" He said shakily.

"Don't worry," Dudley repeated, "Stay behind me and just check it out. It's not even a magical snake or anything, he's just really smart."

Justin stood behind Dudley and watched as Harry let Najash slither out from under his jumper sleeve and wrap around the outside of it. The Patil twins both cooed over the colourful little snake while Dudley helped Justin get used to it, which wasn't hard once he saw the girls petting it and making kissing noises at it without being bitten.

Then Harry Spoke, and Justin freaked out yet again. He had spent some time talking with Ernie about the magical world, and had been told already that parselmouth meant 'dark wizard'. The derisive glares he got from all three ladies present cooled him down enough to not go running away.

"After learning about your history I wouldn't have expected you to care much for snakes, Potter. What with that Voldemort character using them as his symbol." He finally said as Harry put the snake on the ground and watched it slither towards the stream.

"Yeah, but Najash was my first magical friend. He was the one that told me I was a wizard." Harry replied, "I might have been more wary of snakes, despite being a Speaker, had I been raised in the magical world. But I wasn't, and when I was growing up talking to snakes was just a thing another freaky thing I could do."

"What did he say by the way?" Padma asked, Parvati was bouncing in excitement at the question as well, "I wasn't sure if it was rude to ask…"

"Besides saying he was glad we've found 'humans with some common sense', he said he was going to shed soon," Harry replied, getting a chuckle from both girls, "which is weird, cause he ate _two_ lizards yesterday morning."

Justin almost lost his breakfast at that statement, and Dudley suggested they head up to drier ground and kick the football around some more.

"I've never seen a snake like that before." Padma said after the two Hufflepuffs had walked away, "You called him a 'kingsnake'?"

Harry nodded as he scanned the ground for the telltale red bands and she continued, "Where are they from? In India there are a few snake species with red heads like that, but they are all extremely deadly."

"Kingsnakes are a New World snake," Hermione said, stepping into the conversation so that Harry could keep watching, "named for the same reason as King Cobras in India. They can prey on venomous snakes."

Hermione entered 'teacher mode' as she began recounting all of the facts she could about kingsnakes, particularly the scarlet kingsnake like Najash, to the surprisingly interested twins; her book completely forgotten in her school bag. The twins listened intently as she explained that they were venomless constrictors that were also highly resistant to the poison of snakes in the area they are native to. The scarlet kingsnake actually _was_ coloured like a highly venomous snake that it normally shared a habitat with, but it wasn't affected by that snake's venom either.

"Again?" Harry exclaimed a few minutes later, interrupting Hermione right before she started comparing the different kinds of kingsnake she'd read about to Najash, as he began walking towards the stream.

"What happened?" Parvati asked, concern creeping into her voice. She'd found herself almost lulled to sleep listening to Hermione talk.

"Nothing's wrong," Harry consoled her, "But Najash just caught a lizard." he pointed to a spot twenty feet away, where the girls could see the red and gold stripes of the snake curled into a ball by a tree branch.

"He doesn't normally eat this much…" Harry worried, "I hope the magic here isn't doing anything bad to him."

"You said he ate two lizards yesterday?" Hermione queried, to which he nodded, "Doesn't he normally take a couple days to get moving again after he starts… er… _digesting_?"

Even Hermione got grossed out by the snake sometimes. Harry chuckled as he watched his friend struggle to talk about it.

"It's just, his metabolism seems way faster than it should be if he's eating _again_. Right?" She finished as they got to where the snake had just swallowed the last of the lizard's tail.

"Do you think I should take him to Madame Pomfrey?" Harry asked as the serpent in question slithered up onto the tree branch the lizard had been hiding under and began hissing to him.

_~Harry? You are fearful. Is something wrong?~_ The serpent asked.

_~No. I'm a little worried for you though. Do you know how much you've eaten recently? That is your third lizard in two days, Najash. Are you going to be well?~_ As he spoke he stooped down and picked up his familiar, the snake was too full at the moment to coil around his arm like before, so Harry let him slide into the front pocket on his pull-over jumper.

Najash stuck his head out of the pocket, _~This nest is filled with magic, with energy. I think I will be fine, Harry. Feeling the grass and the earth and the water has been good. Can we return here again?~_

_ ~Of course, little friend. Though we might have to go somewhere dry enough to sit down and study or do homework if we come out tomorrow.~_

Harry frowned at his friend before looking up at the three girls watching the exchange intently, "Madame Pomfrey?" He repeated, "Or maybe Hagrid? Some older students said he takes care of the animals in the forest a lot. Najash doesn't know why he's like this besides the fact that there's a ton of magic here at Hogwarts."

"Maybe Mister Hagrid would be better. Maybe even Professor Kettleburn, the Care for Magical Creatures professor." Padma offered, "Either of them probably has more experience with animals than Madame Pomfrey, since she's a healer."

Harry smiled and nodded, "That makes sense. We were going to go see Hagrid tomorrow anyways, but this is important. Let's go see if he's available."

"I agree, Harry. Should we go get Dudley?" Hermione concurred.

"Maybe we should let he and Justin keep playing football?" Harry offered, "We're still not sure how big Hagrid's hut really is inside, and Justin didn't seem to be really enthused to be around Najash."

Harry and the three girls informed the Hufflepuff boys of where they were going and why and began following the stream towards Hagrid's home. Dudley agreed that they should take Najash to make sure he wasn't sick, and he and Justin headed back to the school to see if they could get anyone else to play ball with them. Along the way, Dudley impressed on his new friend how important it is not to mention that Harry could Speak, but that he wasn't actually trying to hide Najash himself.

Inside the nearest greenhouse, out of sight of the students, two professors watched with rapt attention, as they had since Mister Potter's outburst. Both could tell that the boy was talking to his pet snake, even from inside the greenhouse. Neither knew what to think of that.

"Do you think Albus knows?" Sprout asked her colleague, "Mister Potter asked if he could bring the snake with him to my class you know… I told him sure, especially after he offered to let it hunt the mice in the greenhouses…"

"We shall have to wait until he returns from his 'errand' before we find out. Though I'm sure he's aware of everything to do with the brat." Snape responded.

"I'm not so sure about that…" Sprout demurred, thinking of the letter Mister Dursley had given her after the Welcome Feast as she went back to harvesting the ingredients Snape needed for a special class he was putting on for N.E.W.T. students.

Severus still had no idea what the Headmaster was doing running off to South America with no warning like this. Dumbledore had received an important and 'private' floo call from Arabella Figg late Thursday evening while Severus was meeting with him and run out of the school no less than twenty minutes later with a trunk packed for at least a day or two with no explanation whatsoever.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Hagrid's hut was a lopsided wooden structure with a stone foundation that sat only a few dozen feet from the edge of the Forbidden Forest. The group had trouble almost immediately, as the big man kept an equally gigantic boar hound chained up on his front porch. As soon as the first years approached, the dog began barking and howling at them, straining against its chain to get at Harry. Najash curled up in his pocket, terrified of the huge dog that was so loud the little snake could feel it even through his jumper.

"Fang! Hush now! What'cha see out there boy?" Came a shout from inside the cabin. A few 'thuds' later, sounding like someone tripping on furniture, Hagrid emerged from the front door, all eleven feet of him.

"Harry? Hermione? Good teh see yeh." He said once he saw them standing a little out of the way. Harry was in the rather embarrassing position of hudling behind the three girls.

"You alright there, Harry?" Hagrid asked, alarmed at the boy's obvious fear, "You 'fraid of dogs? I can chain him up out back if you need.

"Sorry Hagrid," Harry said from behind Hermione, "It's not me, it's actually my pet here that's scared of him. He doesn't seem to be feeling right, I was hoping you could look at him? I heard you were good with all animals, not just magical ones?"

"Oh, aye, that won' be a problem Harry." The big man smiled, then frowned as he looked around, "I don' see the owl I got yeh for yer birthday, yeh mean somethin' else?"

"Er, yeah. I brought Hedwig to school too, obviously cause you sent us a letter with her. But _technically _Dudleybrought her, I had another pet already." Harry was careful not to say exactly what kind of pet Najash was just yet. If Hagrid freaked out like Harry thought he might it wouldn't be good for the dog to still be around where it could be riled up.

"Sorry if I offended yeh Harry. Didn' mean teh presume. I was jus' so excited to see ya again." Hagrid said.

"Its alright Hagrid." Harry replied, "Like Hermione said then, we did need an owl. Hedwig's great too, and my aunt and uncle like her as well."

"Well, glad it worked out." Hagrid said as he grabbed the chain holding Fang to the porch, "Don' know why he's actin' like this though. Usually only skittish 'round snakes unless there's some dark creature about. Smart like that, he is."

Harry frowned at that as Hagrid took Fang to the back, then returned to invite his guests inside.

"Who're yer friends here?" Hagrid asked as he held the door for the four first years.

"This is Padma and Parvati Patil." Hermione said as she introduced the twins. It was easy to tell them apart despite not wearing their school robes since Parvati seemed to prefer non magical clothing on her off days and Padma didn't.

"Blimey, two sets of twins in Hogwarts at once." Hagrid whistled, "Least you two don' take to dressing the same to confuse teachers. Those Weasleys drive Mcgonagall righ' mad, they do."

Once the four had found seats on the Hagrid-sized couch in his sitting room, the big man drug a chair across from them and asked to see Harry's sick friend.

He withdrew his hands when Harry took Najash out of his pocket, and his voice rose a few decibels as he exclaimed, "A snake! Harry! Careful lad, looks-"

"He's not!" Harry interrupted, all but shouting, "I've had this conversation a half-dozen times since coming to Hogwarts. He's not dangerous at all! I just think he's sick!"

Hermione put her hand on Harry's shoulder to calm him, Parvati did the same from his other side, as he cradled the snake close to him. In his hand, Najash squirmed, upset at whatever had upset Harry.

"Sorry Harry. Really." Hagrid said, realizing how much he'd upset the boy, "Can I take a look at him while yeh tell me what's wrong?"

Harry let Najash slither onto the table in front of them and began explaining about the snake's lethargy, followed by his much increased eating, while Hagrid gestured at the snake a few times with his umbrella before running his hand through his thick beard in frustration.

"I don' know what to tell ya, Harry," Hagrid said after he'd finished his strange examination, "All the magic I use says he's fine. But he sure don' sound like it."

Hagrid thought about what Harry had told him for a little while as the snake allowed the Patil twins to take turns holding and petting him. Hagrid couldn't help but frown at that, girls who were okay playing with a snake was certainly new to him.

"What I don' understand though, Harry," He asked, "is why you gave him so much food yesterday. Yeh said yeh've had him three years, why feed him so much now?"

"Well. He asked for it. He's never asked for more than he needed before." Harry answered absently as he watched the serpent play in Hermione's bushy, unruly hair to the delight of the other two girls. Maybe he really was okay?

"What do yeh mean?" Hagrid asked suspiciously, "Asked? Harry can you _talk_ to yer pet here?"

Harry looked up at Hagrid, worried that the gentle giant would throw him out if he knew, he obviously had issues with snakes.

"Yeah." Harry said quietly, carefully gauging Hagrid's reaction.

The first emotion that played over the big man's face was fear, followed by suspicion. Harry held his breath.

It only took a second for all of that to go out the window as Hagrid smiled and said, "Well, yeh shouldn't go telling people about that. They'll be thinkin yer dark."

"You aren't worried about that?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Hogwash," Hagrid exclaimed, "yer Harry Potter, son o' James an' Lily Potter! There's not a dark bone in yer body!"

Harry smiled broadly at the big man's declaration of support, "Do you know someone else we could ask about Najash? Maybe Professor Kettleburn?" He asked.

"Kettleburn's great. Loves creatures, he does. But he don' much care for muggle animals. If it ain't magical _some_how he don' do much with it."

Hagrid left the friends for a moment to put some water to boil for tea while he thought. Returning a few minutes later with the tea set he had an answer no one really wanted to hear.

"Have yeh thought about asking Professor Snape?" He asked as he set the pot and cups on the table in front of his guests.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, Hagrid." Harry answered, "He seems to have it in for me. Dudley as well."

"Poppycock, why would he do that?" Hagrid asked unconvincingly.

"That sounded almost rhetorical, Mister Hagrid." Hermione said as she locked her gaze on him, Najash sitting on top of her head and also staring straight at the groundskeeper adding to the slightly menacing tone in her voice, "why _would_ he do that? Because he definitely did. He hovered over Harry and I almost the whole class. Dudley said he did the same to him, except Dudley isn't as good at potions and lost several house points for simple failures."

"Not to mention 'breathing too loudly'." Harry added with air quotes. Even after the Neville incident, Harry hadn't really believed that one until the greasy git took points from Dean for exactly that fifteen minutes before the period let out.

Hagrid made a face at that like he didn't quite want to believe it, but knew it was probably true.

"Snape's troubles are his own." Hagrid finally said, "I can't be going 'bout telling people his business. He has a bit 'o reason to not like Potters, he won' be unfair about it though. But if he gets on ya too hard yeh should take it to Dumbledore."

Harry snorted at that and Hagrid glared at him for a moment, "I'm sorry I can't help more, Harry. Snape's the one mos' likely to know about snakes though. If there's somethin' wrong he'll be the one to know."

They continued talking for a while after that, during which time Hermione gave Hagrid a pared-down version of her kingsnake facts lesson that the Patils had received earlier. The groundskeeper was actually a little impressed with the snake afterwords. His initial opinions were coloured not only by Britain's cultural issues, but also by the fact that northern Scotland only had venomous adders for snakes. Knowing that this snake was not only safe, but actively hunted the dangerous kind, made him a star in Hagrid's book.

As the afternoon wore on the group realized that they needed to find time to get homework done, and excused themselves from Hagrid's Hut after promising to keep their tea engagement the next day and bring Dudley along.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

That evening after dinner Harry found himself in the dungeons arguing with himself over whether he should knock on the door to Professor Snape's office. Najash was feeling more energetic but he definitely was beginning to shed, his eyes had glazed over in a span of merely hours to mark the beginning of the process. Something that normally took a day or two. After a minute standing in front of the door arguing with himself Harry finally knocked.

"Enter!" came the gruff answer from within.

Snape looked up as Harry closed the door behind him, "What do you want, Potter?" He demanded.

"Sir, I was hoping you could help me." Harry began tentatively.

"Unfortunately for you, Potter," Snape bit back, "I am not here to bow to your need for attention. If you want special lessons or some other privilege go ask your own Head of House."

"It's not that sir." Harry responded quietly.

"Then what boy? Out with it!"

"It's my pet, sir, I'm worried that he's sick." Harry started.

"Then take him to Kettleburn, or that bloody oaf Hagrid. I am not a _vet_." Snape hissed back.

"I did take him to Hagrid," Harry said, getting angry now at Snape's continued abuse, "he said that Professor Kettleburn didn't care much about non magical animals. He tried checking Najash himself, but didn't know what was wrong. He said you would be the specialist."

"So this is about your snake then?" The Professor asked matter-of-factly, to Harry's shock.

"Another teacher mentioned him?" Harry asked.

"Sprout informed me that you offered your familiar's service in keeping the greenhouses pest-free." He replied evenly before his expression softened a little, "So the serpent is ill?"

Harry nodded as relief swept over his face, the professor's tone made it clear he was going to help, "Yes sir, will you take a look at him?"

"I would be a disgrace to Slytherin if I did not know how to care for a snake. Merlin knows, there's at least one snake being kept as a pet in each year in my House. Some of them are even non-venomous." One side of Snape's mouth quirked at his joke and Harry smiled as the tension finished draining from him.

"Did you at least have the presence of mind to bring the creature here with you to save us all some time?" He asked, his dour tone returning so fast that Harry felt he'd get whiplash.

"Uhm, yes sir." Harry replied, mentally off balance again as he stepped forward and allowed Najash to slither from inside his sleeve onto the potions master's desk.

Snape eyed the snake warily as he slowly picked his wand up off the desk and pointed it, glancing at Harry as he did, and spoke a spell, "Finite Incantatem."

Nothing happened. The snake stared at the professor through milky eyes.

"What was that sir?" Harry asked, his voice riddled with curiosity.

Snape went on gesturing with his wand, periodically touching the tip to a parchment and allowing words to form on it before going back to casting.

As he cast, the professor answered, "It was the basic spell-cancelling spell," at Harry's confused expression he elaborated, "the Headmaster was adamant that you had cast, or had someone else cast, a spell to make your snake these colours. I told him no first year would be that skilled, and no Gryffindor would cast such a spell on a snake. But he was convinced that he was right. It's actually rare I have a chance to say 'I told you so' to Dumbledore."

He quizzed Harry about the symptoms that had been showing while he continued his diagnostics. The fourth time Snape pressed his wand to the parchment to show the results of his studies he gasped and almost dropped his wand.

"What's wrong sir? Is Najash going to be alright?" Harry asked in a panic as the professor's eyes widened to saucers.

Instead of immediately answering, Snape began casting diagnostic spells at _Harry_. Najash hissed in protest as Harry became agitated.

_~What is wrong, Harry? What is the angry-man doing?~_ He asked as he coiled to strike.

_~I don't know, my friend. But he hasn't hurt me. Something _is_ wrong! I think it's bad~_ Harry's worry for his friend was eating him as he Spoke.

"Mister Potter, please calm your familiar." Snape said as he read out the results of his diagnostics on Harry, making no remark of Harry's Speaking.

That was easier said than done. Najash could tell as soon as Harry walked in that he was uncomfortable around Snape. In addition, Snape's dislike of Harry was so apparent that even the serpent could read the body language, and it made Najash upset. Harry ultimately picked up his familiar and held him on the other side of the room for a minute or two, hissing consolation to the angry serpent.

"Well," Snape began again once Najash was no longer tensed up and ready to attack, "Potter, I can say with certainty that your snake will be fine." Harry breathed a loud sigh of relief, "However, I must ask. Who helped you to bond your familiar to you?"

"What do you mean, sir?" Harry asked back.

"Potter, your… Najash… isn't merely a pet. He is a true familiar." Snape explained.

To no benefit, as Harry was obviously completely lost.

"Most witches and wizards never actually bond themselves to their pets like this." Snape said, "When they do it's almost always with a cat or an owl, as they are generally considered the most 'useful' kinds of familiars."

"What does that mean though?" Harry asked.

"Kneazles and Post Owls aren't just cats or owls with spells cast upon them. They are truly magical animals that are the result of familiars breeding together to produce a new, naturally magical, breed."

Harry was amazed. Magic could make animals _evolve_? Actually spawn new species from non magical ones?

"This started because of the nature of the familiar bond." The professor continued, "Part of the process involves opening up the wizard's magic to the potential familiar, both of whom must accept the bond without coercion. The end result is that the former pet now has a small magical core within them that permanently links them to their wizard."

Snape looked at the red-faced snake once more, "That is what is happening to this one here. You fully bonded him as your familiar a little more than one year ago, according to my diagnostics. Part of that process in snakes is unnatural growth and Najash here will likely grow quite a bit now that you have come to Hogwarts. It was always going to happen, but the high concentration of magic here triggered it to happen _now_. Since you have no idea what I'm speaking of, I can only assume you bonded to the snake without proper knowledge and without anyone to supervise. Which was extremely dangerous, it could have damaged your magic irreparably, but seems to have ended up being harmless. Typical Potter luck."

"How big do you think he'll get?" Harry asked as he looked at his 'little' friend.

"There is no telling, as that will ultimately depend on you. Though I imagine the high concentration of magic in Hogwarts is what started the process so suddenly, it will not affect the actual increase in size he will undergo." Snape replied.

"Go on, Potter, ask." Snape added after a moment, when it seemed Harry was simply going to thank him and leave, "I have spoken with Sprout and Flitwick earlier today."

"Would… would it be alright if I brought Najash to class with me sir?" Harry asked, once he realized what the professor was pushing for, "He and I have studied and brewed potions together for a long time, and I was teaching him about different ingredients. He won't be a bother in class, sir, I promise. He stays-"

"That's enough Potter," the professor snapped. _Merlin_, he thought to himself, _when he gets like that his eyes remind me exactly of Lily's, _"you can bring the serpent with you on one condition."

Harry waited while Snape paused for dramatic effect.

"Answer this question: Why are you walking around with your familiar under your sleeve everywhere you go, even mealtimes it seems, but going to such lengths to avoid letting knowledge of him get out?"

Harry thought about his answer for a moment, "I don't want to keep him hidden longer than I have to. He was my first magical friend." Snape's eyebrow rose at that admission, "So I figured if I had him with me in a bunch of classes and the teachers knew but the other students didn't, then when it did come out that he's there I can say 'but he's always been there, and nothing ever happens' and the teachers would back me up."

Harry paused for breath as he realized he'd been talking rather quickly, "I don't want to disrupt other people from studying. But I know I'm not the only one who brings a pet to class occasionally, I've seen Weasley's rat sticking out of his pocket sometimes.. I get that no one will be okay with me _talking _to him in class, but just having him there shouldn't be a problem."

Snape nodded at the answer, "Potter, how did you avoid being sorted into Slytherin?"

Harry grinned, "I think you said I only had to answer the one question, professor."

Snape smirked, "Get out then, Potter. You may bring Najash with you to class in the future. Understand though, that if we are brewing a potion whose fumes might be dangerous to the snake I will insist that you leave it on my desk for the duration of that class."

"I think that's fine, sir. As long as that won't happen next class I think it won't matter." Snape agreed and sent the Gryffindor on his way.


	11. Chapter 10: The Phoenix and the Serpent

The Phoenix and the Serpent

"Even if it was for Najash, I can't believe Snape was so helpful." Neville said to Harry after hearing about his encounter with the potions master last night. Neville's Gran had decided to take him back to Longbottom Manor for dinner after getting his wand and he'd returned to the castle rather late, so he was being filled in on what he missed over breakfast.

"Professor Snape." Hermione said reflexively, causing those around her to roll their eyes.

"I'm just glad he's going to be okay. Though I'm still worried about this whole 'unnatural growth' thing." Harry concluded.

"Twins alert." Hermione muttered under her breath as he saw the redheads approach.

They'd been sort-of shadowing her and Harry since Friday morning, and had somehow known that Harry was meeting with Professor Snape last night without anyone telling them. Hermione really wanted to know how they seemed to know so much, it might be a risk to Harry and Najash. Or it might be against the rules.

"Can we ask you a question, Potter?" The nearer twin asked once they'd sat down across from the first years.

"Just did." Harry responded, unconsciously rubbing his arm where Najash was wrapped around him.

"Yeah, um. That letter you got on Friday," Harry's eyebrow rose, at least it wasn't about Najash, "the one that came from 'Mister Moony'."

"What about it?" Harry asked, "Mister Moony was one of my dad's friends in school. They played pranks and studied together, which is basically all the letter said, too. Do you know him or something? Unlikely since its a nickname and he's been out of the country for a while."

The twins stared at him, dumbstruck, for a full thirty seconds before responding, "Harry, Harry," they began together before one took over, "We need you to send him another letter, ask him a question for us."

"Yeah mate," the other twin continued, "we think we _do_ know him, or _of_him, possibly. If we're right, then we have something that belongs to him."

The first brother picked up again, "Right, if it's really _The_ Mister Moony then we need to know if he wants it back."

"Well, what is it? I can ask him I guess." Harry replied, totally confused.

The twins shared a look before pulling out a piece of parchment and taking turns composing a short two-sentence note between them. When they finished they handed it to Harry, "Would you send him this?" they asked in unison.

Harry read the note, shaking his head in further confusion, before putting it in his jeans pocket:

"_Messrs Weasley and Weasley, pranksters extraordinaire, find themselves in possession of a certain enchanted artefact belonging to Mister Moony._

_ If Mister Moony, of the Illustrious Marauders, were to prove that he was aware of what Misters Weasley and Weasley refer to, they would be pleased to return said artefact, upon request."_

"I'll send this after breakfast if Hedwig doesn't bring something with this morning's mail." Harry said as he went back to eating.

"She will, I signed up for the _Sunday Prophet_ the last time we were in Diagon Alley." Hermione said, "I figured we could get a copy of the regular _Prophet _from someone after they were done with it, no problem."

"Yeah, but that's not really how the _Prophet_ works." Neville added, puzzled, "They use their own owls to make deliveries."

"Tell that to Hedwig." Dudley said, laughing as he sat down, having caught the end of that exchange, "The only day she didn't deliver it for us back home was the first day we had her, when we didn't let her out of her cage that night."

As if to prove he was telling the truth, the beautiful white owl swooped into the Great Hall ahead of the flurry of other owls and landed gently in front of Hermione with her newspaper.

"Why thank you Hedwig," Hermione said cheerfully as she handed the bird a strip of bacon, pet her head, and took the paper from where Hedwig had dropped it out of her claws onto the table, "Harry has something for you to send to Mister Lupin too. If that's alright."

Hedwig hooted at her and hopped one space over to Harry after she was done. Harry grinned and rubbed her head and back for a while before pulling out the letter and writing a quick, 'Moony, my friends asked me to send this', onto the outside and attaching it to the bird's leg. Hedwig hopped over to stand before Dudley last, who lavished pets onto the snowy owl and slipped her one more piece of her favorite breakfast treat.

"I hope she didn't hurt the news owl that was originally going to deliver that paper." Neville said as Hedwig flew away.

"I'm sure it's fine." Dudley replied, not totally convinced, as he observed the twins both still awestruck that Hedwig had actually delivered the _Prophet_. He resolved to check on that later. Heck, maybe Hedwig would be honest if he asked her directly.

"Mister Potter, the Headmaster has requested to meet with you this morning." Professor Mcgonagall said to him five minutes later after she had come down from the head table.

Harry looked at her nervously for a moment before she leaned in and continued in a quieter voice, "Do not worry. I shall be there the whole time, just as your guardian requested, and I shall be sending her a report immediately afterwards."

Harry nodded and looked to Hermione, "If I'm not back in time for tea with Hagrid come check on me, alright?" He gave her a thumbs up as he stood to follow his Head of House.

"Uh oh, we've never been called to the headmaster's office in two years of pranking, what did you do?" One of the twins asked as Harry walked away, causing him to smile a little.

"If I may, Mister Potter, why specifically do you feel such distrust and animosity towards the headmaster?" Mcgonagall asked to break the silence after they had walked about halfway to the Headmaster's office.

"You know he left me out on the front porch that night, don't you?" Harry asked without facing her.

"Yes, I was there, along with Hagrid." She replied, "We were all under the impression that your Aunt's family hated magic, and I allowed him to convince me that leaving you under a warming charm until they stepped out to turn off the porch light would be better than basically invading their home with the worst possible news."

"Lights can have multiple switches, there was one inside." Harry deadpanned.

Mcgonagall covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes widened in shock, "I apologize, Mister Potter… I… I did not know that." She cleared her throat, obviously she needed to better familiarize herself with muggle technology, "Is there anything else in particular?"

"A lot of personal stuff to do with my family and Gringotts. I'm not supposed to talk about it without my aunt present." Harry responded quickly.

"Well then, how are you enjoying Hogwarts so far?" Mcgonagall sighed internally, this was going to be an interesting visit if the headmaster asked the questions she suspected.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"He actually spoke parseltongue in your office?" Dumbledore asked his potions master while they waited for Mcgonagall to bring young Harry. The very first thing Snape had said upon entering was that Harry Potter was a parselmouth, and had come to him because his snake was ill.

"Indeed, the serpent became defensive when I cast a diagnostic spell at the boy, he didn't hesitate to speak to it to calm it down." Snape replied, "Sprout knows as well, he took the snake out behind the greenhouses yesterday and she saw him speaking to it then."

Dumbledore frowned, "Why did he take it there?"

"It was beginning to shed, most snakes need to moisten their skin to ease that process, so he went to the stream back there."

"Then what exactly was wrong with the snake? Why did you cast a spell at young Harry?" Dumbledore asked, catching up to the incongruity.

Snape frowned himself, unsure how the headmaster would take this news, "While examining the serpent, I found a magical core," the Headmaster's eyebrows rose, "and then cast a spell to verify that the serpent was bound to Potter. It is. Najash is a real familiar."

"Who? How?" Dumbledore wasn't sure what question he wanted answered first.

"He said no one helped, he didn't even seem to know what a familiar was until I explained it." Snape replied, "The Dark Lord sometimes indicated that the snakes he spoke to know an instinctive sort of magic. Perhaps the snake itself initiated the bond?"

"We will have to ask when he gets here then." Dumbledore said matter-of-factly.

They didn't have to wait much longer before Professor Mcgonagall opened the door, allowing Harry to enter before closing it behind her.

"Is there a reason Professor Snape is present for this meeting, headmaster?" Mcgonagall questioned, eyeing the Head of Slytherin as he sat on a stool in the corner.

"Severus was just informing me of what has happened while I've been gone." The Headmaster responded, "Regardless, you needn't worry about him, Minerva, he has my utmost confidence."

Dumbledore turned his grandfatherly gaze towards Harry now, his eyes twinkling merrily, "Harry my boy," He hesitated when Harry frowned at the casual mode of address, "Mister Potter then. I must apologize for this being the first time we've met, at least when you could remember, but circumstances led to my believing a standoffish approach was the correct choice. For that, I am sorry."

"That's alright," Harry said, "my aunt made sure I understood why I was raised with them and couldn't try and find the magical world. That it was dangerous and all. When we did go back to Diagon Alley the first time, we found out a lot of the bad guys got away after my parents died. So I can't hold that against you."

Albus sighed, "That is rather good of you, to forgive that easily."

"No sir." Harry said simply.

"I'm sorry, what?" Dumbledore looked up sharply. Behind Harry, Mcgonagall and Snape were staring at him with interest.

"I haven't forgiven you yet, sir. What you just apologized for was nothing, not even worth mentioning. Nothing to forgive there."

The headmaster's eyes widened slightly before calming again, "Then let us begin to work things out, if you will, though not today I think. I know that I have made other choices that you and your… magical guardian… might not approve of. When they deem to meet with me, I will endeavor to defend my decisions to both of you." He paused a moment, hoping that Harry would divulge some information about the woman, "Leaving that for the moment, as I'm sure you have been instructed not to speak of 'Ms. Acacia', I've been told you have a rather… _non standard _familiar?"

Harry wrapped his hand protectively over the arm Najash was coiled around, "Why do you ask, sir?"

"I'm not here to judge you in any way, I promise. I also will not be asking you to send the snake home, necessarily." Harry released the breath he didn't realize he was holding, "I simply want to speak with you, and assess any potential risk your familiar may bring. To others or even to yourself."

As Harry mulled over the headmaster's words a soft, soothing birdsong filled the room. Harry looked over to the corner behind the headmaster and saw a beautiful red bird, larger than an owl, perched on a golden stand. The song washed over him and he felt his stress and worry flee from him.

"That was amazing." Harry said when the bird stopped singing.

"This is Fawkes, my own familiar." The headmaster responded as he stood and offered the bird a piece of hard candy, "He is a phoenix."

"He's beautiful." Harry said, still watching the red and gold bird as it stared back at him, sucking on a lemon drop.

_~The fire-bird is right, Harry. You should not worry, he would not allow his wizard to be dark.~ _Harry heard Najash say from under his sleeve.

Harry's thoughts were elsewhere, though. _Phoenix were real_! In mythology a phoenix's tears were capable of healing someone of almost anything!

"Perhaps he wishes to see your wand again, it is Fawkes' own feather that serves as its core, after all." At Harry's questioning look he continued, "I asked Mister Ollivander to inform me when that wand sold, and to whom, due to its potential connection to its brother."

"Well," Harry said after nodding to the headmaster and turning back to Fawkes, "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't show it to you today. I don't normally carry that wand around."

"What?" Dumbledore asked hastily, leaning forward, "You have another wand then? Where did you get it?"

Harry backed up, accidentally bumping into Professor Mcgonagall, who put a steadying hand on his shoulder.

"Please watch your tone with my student, Albus." Mcgonagall said as she glared at the old man, "If he asks for it, you won't be allowed in the same room as him _at all_."

"Typical Potter, always needing to have things their way." Snape muttered from his corner. Harry scrunched his face in confusion at that, he hadn't given what Hagrid said yesterday much though, but had Professor Snape known his family before the war or something?

"That's enough of that, Severus." Mcgonagall hissed.

"I use _my_ wand, headmaster." Harry finally said, his confidence bolstered by Professor Mcgonagall standing up for him. He pulled his redwood wand out of his bag and showed it to the old wizard, "This wand. The one with Fawkes' feather in it isn't really mine, but Mister Ollivander said it wanted me to take it anyway, so he sold me both. I keep the other one in a box in the bottom of my trunk."

Dumbledore stared at the redwood wand in front of him, _why hadn't Ollivander mentioned that?_

"Most interesting, would you tell me about your wand?" The headmaster finally asked.

Harry smiled as he looked at the magical instrument in his hand, "It's redwood and horned serpent horn, sir. It has a 'step-brother' wand, or something like that, my cousin Dudley's. Mister Ollivander said they were made in North America by the same maker, and at the same time, and didn't like being separated."

Dumbledore chuckled and nodded, the explanation providing an easy segway into his next line of questioning, "That is a rather interesting history for a wand you've had barely a month, most impressive. Though now I feel we can return to the matter of your familiar."

"Albus, I don't see what the problem is, after Miss Granger told me what species Mister Potter's pet was I looked it up. They identified it correctly, and it's harmless." Mcgonagall said, her hand still protectively resting on Harry's shoulder, though not the one she knew was attached to the arm Najash was wrapped around.

"That is one of the things we need to discuss." Dumbledore replied sagely, "It is not a simple pet anymore, not for a year or so. Is that correct?" He locked eyes with Harry as he spoke.

"That's why Professor Snape is here, isn't it?" Harry asked, "Last night when I took Najash for him to look at, he said that Najash and I were 'bonded' or something. He said Najash was going to begin growing again, which kind of has me freaked out since he's supposed to be about fully grown now, but he didn't say much else."

"That would be because, though he has plenty of experience with snakes, he does not have as much with familiar bonds, like the one you apparently share with your serpent." Dumbledore explained.

"A familiar bond?" Mcgonagall queried, "How is that possible? Who could have taught him?"

"I believe the easiest way to answer that would be for young Harry to tell us about when he believes it happened." The headmaster popped another candy in his mouth as he answered, "Forgive me, I'm sitting here indulging myself and offering nothing, would any of you like a lemon drop?"

Harry reached for a candy before noticing that neither of the teachers were and took his hand back. The headmaster frowned and moved the dish to the edge of his desk where Harry could reach it if he changed his mind.

"Well, would you tell us that particular tale? Professor Snape indicated that you weren't surprised when he told you the time frame of your bond, so I suspect you have an idea of when it happened, yes?" The aged wizard leaned back in his chair to wait for Harry to begin his story.

Before beginning, Harry glanced back at Professor Snape, looking for some sign that the Headmaster already _knew_. The potions master inclined his head minutely and Harry hissed out an invitation to Najash, who slithered out from under Harry's shirt and draped himself over his wizard's shoulders.

Mcgonagall jumped back when Harry Spoke, before remembering herself and stepping forward again, embarrassed, "I'm sorry, Mister Potter. I was not prepared for… that…"

_How is that possible? _She thought to herself, _Parseltongue doesn't run in the Potter line._

"It's alright, Professor, I think I'll have to get used to those reactions at some point." Harry said, "Headmaster, I'd like to get Najash to help me with the story so I don't forget anything, since I wasn't there for the beginning, and don't really remember that night very well after what I think is the 'bonding' started." Dumbledore nodded as he watched the snake and boy, who then began to slowly recount the story of their bonding on a Saturday evening in July of last year.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Petunia sighed contentedly as she pruned her prized pink roses, gardening was easily the most relaxing part of her day, even better than afternoon tea. For the last couple years Harry had been helping her as well, they knew that herbology was a core class in Hogwarts, and it never hurts to be used to getting your hands dirty. But, she still insisted that she take care of the roses herself.

They had been a parting gift from her sister when they had been forced to pretend to dislike each other. The roses were a magical strain that Lily had altered slightly with some magic Petunia didn't have a clue about, but the result was that they worked for her and Vernon just like they were supposed to for magicals. Tea from the roses helped whenever she and her husband were having a rough patch in their relationship. It caused you to remember all the reasons you love the people you love, even when you're angry or frustrated with them. Petunia knew that Harry would be tempted to try and find out what the rose petals did if he ever worked with the plant and she was worried that it would make him think of his parents, which would probably have the opposite of the intended effect.

So caught up was she in her gardening and musing about Harry, Petunia didn't notice how the slithering form near the base of the nearby fig bush wasn't the right colours. She had actually begun to grow used to having her nephew's friend in her garden with her. A violent hiss was all the warning she received as a black and green adder struck at her, only to be intercepted in mid air by a streak of red and gold.

Petunia screamed for Harry as she stumbled backwards, terrified and shrieking while she watched her nephew's pet wrap the adder up and slowly crush it, even as the slightly larger, venomous snake struck at the constrictor repeatedly. She hadn't seen a dangerous snake, nor rodent of any kind, in her garden in two years now; and she wasn't prepared in the least. By the time Harry had made it outside, the struggle was over and Najash hesitantly slithered away from the dead adder.

_~Little friend, are you okay? Did he bite you?~ _Harry frantically reached for his pet, who hissed at him to stop him.

_~Sssstill toooo closssse. Death reflexsssss, do… not get bit-t-ten Harry.~ _Harry began to panic at how weak his friend's voice sounded, and how shaky and unsure his motions were in the grass.

Once Najash was far enough from his foe, which took far longer than Harry would have liked, he picked up his little friend and turned to make sure his aunt was alright. She was standing about ten feet away, her hand clutching her chest over her heart as she gulped in gigantic breaths of air.

"He saved me." Petunia managed to get out between hysterical gulps, "It had already struck at me, and he _caught _it."

"I need to take him upstairs! He's hurt, I think he's been bit!" Harry shouted as he ran back inside and upstairs. Petunia stayed outside just long enough to look back at the unmoving adder, Vernon would have to take a shovel to it when he got back from his neighborhood poker game in a few hours.

As he was running up the stairs Harry felt Najash tighten painfully around his hand and almost stumbled back down, _~That hurts, please stop.~_ he hissed out.

_~Put me down-n-n quickly. It hurtssss Harry. Can-nn-not control.~_ The snake's muscles were spasming from the venom, and he was accidentally crushing Harry's hand.

Once in his room, Harry pried Najash off his hand and grabbed a book on animal venoms, desperately hoping there would be something he could do to help with the few nonperishable magical ingredients they had. It was too late in the day to try and take him to a vet on a weekend, even if they could help a foreign snake being bitten by an adder. After a few fruitless minutes of searching Harry returned to his friend on the bed, begging him to tell him what he could do to help.

_~The poisssson isss ssstrange… Harry. It burnsssss~ _Najash spasmed and wrapped himself up as he spoke, Harry was worried his friend would somehow tie himself in a knot!

_~What can I do? I'll do anything I can to save you Najash! Isn't there any magic I can do? I know I haven't been taught, but I can still try.~_ Harry tentatively reached out to his friend, praying that he would be alright.

_~If you sssh-sh-share your magic… with me, if… you tr-tr-truly have a… healersss… sssoullll…~_

_ ~What do I have to do?~ _Harry responded with a lot more confidence than he felt.

The snake shivered as he examined Harry, flicking his tongue out to taste his wizard's emotional state. Harry's worry was apparent, as was his care for his snake.

_~It cannot be undonnnnne~ _Najash hissed out through the pain.

_~What do I have to do?~_ Harry repeated, more sure of himself this time, _~I am a wizard, if I can use that, my magic, to heal you then I want to do it.~_

_ ~Give me your h-hand, and I'm s-sssorry if it… hurtsss.~_

Petunia stepped up to Harry's door, left cracked open, as Najash hissed the last words to Harry. She covered her mouth to fight her instinct to scream again when she saw the snake latch onto the space between Harry's thumb and fingers with its teeth. Harry winced, but didn't fight as the spasming snake curled around his hand, jaws still locked onto him.

Harry continued speaking the snake language as his blood dripped onto the floor from where Najash was chewing on his hand. Just before Petunia decided to interfere, worried that Harry's fingers might get broken by the snake's powerful muscles, his hand began to glow a soft gold and silver light. The light pulsed slowly and worked its way from Harry into the snake from where they were connected. After a full minute, the snake was glowing and Harry's hand was back to normal except for the places where Najash's teeth were still buried in him, which still shimmered.

Harry sighed when Najash finally released his hand once he'd stopped glowing as well, and Petunia entered the room to ask what had happened and whether the snake would be okay. Harry turned to acknowledge her and promptly passed out, his aunt managed to catch him before he hit his head on the wall and she put him to bed.

After tucking Harry in, Petunia looked down to find Najash climbing up onto the foot of the bed as well.

"Is he going to be okay?" Petunia asked aloud while holding her nephew's hand once the serpent had finished climbing and relaxed beside Harry's leg.

_Look at me_, Petunia thought to herself, _trying to talk to a snake_.

Najash looked up at her and bobbed his head, once, before laying back down. Petunia forced a smile and managed to leave the room before her composure broke and she began hyperventilating.

_What did I just witness?_ She asked herself as she finally went to prepare a warm towel for Harry.

Harry didn't wake up until the evening after next. Refreshed but starving, he found Najash curled beside his head, sleeping peacefully, and grinned. They would become healers, he was sure of it now.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Truly astounding." Dumbledore said a half-hour later, once Harry had sat back down after finishing his story.

"What's astounding is that nothing went wrong. Without a runic array to keep your magic focused you could have given too much magic and injured yourself." Professor Mcgonagall said from her seat, "At least you can put aside your worries about the thing being dangerous to other students, Albus."

"Indeed," He responded, "though it brings up the new question of exactly how much magic went into the bonding. It can't have been too much, as Mister Potter here is still young, but it will let us know approximately how much larger the snake will become over time."

"How do we tell that?" Harry asked, clearly worried that the Headmaster was going to imply he was the one to do it.

"Madam Pomfrey can perform that examination, I believe." Dumbledore responded, "And if anything else comes up concerning your bond that causes you worry you may feel free to come to me for advice." He smirked from behind his beard and gestured towards Fawkes the phoenix, "I have a passable knowledge of familiar bonds, particularly those with magical creatures."

Harry looked like he wasn't sure about that, but Professor Mcgonagall was quick to offer to be present for any such meeting as well.

"Professor, there was actually something I wanted to ask about while I had the chance, I should have asked while we were walking here but it wasn't on my mind at the time." Harry added after Mcgonagall's offer, "Najash shed his skin last night, but I couldn't find it this morning when I was looking." He glanced down at the snake on his shoulder, "I collect the skins… I have three years worth. Is there some kind of magic housekeeping that took the shed skin after he was done?"

Professor Mcgonagall took a moment to process that, "Yes, I suppose a house elf would have assumed it was simply waste to be removed."

"Uhm, would it be possible to ask them to bring it back? If it's not too late?" Harry asked tentatively.

"I don't see why that would be a problem," Dumbledore said as he turned to the space beside his desk and called, "Lonny!"

Instantly the empty space was occupied by a diminutive, wrinkly little creature, maybe two-and-a-half feet tall, with gigantic eyes and ears wearing a simple tea cozy emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest.

"Headmaster Dumby-door calls?" The creature, Lonny, Harry assumed, asked as it, _he_, bowed deeply.

"Mister Potter here was wondering if the elf in charge of cleaning the Gryffindor first year boy's dorms might be able to retrieve the shed snake skin that was taken from his room this morning. He has a collection of them, it would seem." The headmaster smiled at the creature as it turned to regard Harry with a look of awe.

"Of course! Lonny be telling the Gryffy elfs to bring it backs today, Mister Potter Sir!" The elf yelped excitedly before he noticed Najash resting on Harry's shoulder.

"You's have a Gryffy serpent!" He continued, "Elfs was worried cause the great Harry Potter has a serpent familiar in Lion's Tower! But they never see it in light! It be Gryffy coloured! Harry Potter beat bad-snake-man and snakes bow to _him_ now!"

Harry wasn't sure how to respond to the creatures adoration and excitability, but decided to let Najash return to his hand and hold him where the elf could get a better look.

"This is Najash, he'll be in the dorm a lot when the elves are cleaning it. Could you make sure they don't bother him somehow while they do?" Harry was quick to continue when he saw the devastated look on the elf's face, "I don't think the elves will bother him at all, they haven't yet! I just wanted to make sure, you know? I don't know much about magic and _nothing _about elves."

The elf nodded vigorously as he stared at the snake in front of him, "Gryffy elfs being told to care for the Great Harry Potter's familiar. Be making sure he comfys."

With that declaration, the elf disappeared with an almost silent _pop_.

"That was… weird." Harry admitted once the creature was gone, "I'll never understand all the nonsense about me being a hero."

"Whatever do you mean?" Mcgonagall asked, "Surely you know the story of the end of the war and the defeat of You-Know-Who?"

"You mean how Voldemort attacked my family in their own home after their best friend betrayed them?" Harry asked, ignoring Mcgonagall's reflexive flinch at the name, "How they still managed to trick him somehow with magic and beat him? But they died doing it so everyone gives _me_ the credit?"

"You think it was your parents that defeated Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked.

"Obviously," Snape drawled from his corner in the back, "at least the boy has enough sense to understand reality. I have said for ten years that there was no way a baby defeated the Dark Lord."

"Thank you." Harry said, despite the venom the Professor seemed to have in his tone.

"Yes, well, it is the nature of people to want heros more than martyrs." Dumbledore said, drawing the conversation back to the front of the room, "You will always be famous, because you _lived_. Though it is truly a shame that your parents do tend to be forgotten as a consequence."

"Is there anything else, sir?" Harry asked after a moment of silence, "My friends and I were going to have tea with Hagrid around noon, but I need to take Najash back to Gryffindor tower first. Fang doesn't like snakes."

"I suppose, before you go, I must hazard to ask: Is there some way that I might be able to contact your magical guardian, Ms. Peony Acacia?" Dumbledore asked, his face totally neutral, "The only contact information I have is Gringotts, and any letter I send is returned, unopened."

"No sir, Ms. Acacia says you shouldn't need to meet her, or talk with her, so I'm not to say anything." Harry responded with practiced clarity.

"Then, would you happen to know anything about a representative from the Brazilian Ministry of Magic being near your home this week?" The headmaster continued.

"No sir, I don't know anyone in Brazil or anything." Harry answered, extremely perplexed.

Dumbledore simply nodded, he'd have to ask Arabella Figg for more details since his trip to South America turned up nothing. Then he looked back up with his grandfatherly twinkle back, "One last thing, just a curiosity. How was that incident, after two years, the first time Najash was bitten by an adder? I assumed from the context that he would have been chasing them away or killing them since you met him."

"Most snakes I just told to go away. He only ever killed one other snake, and that one he surprised in the garden before it bit one of the neighbor's cats, but that one was also a lot smaller too." Harry replied, "We didn't _want_ to kill a bunch of snakes just for being attracted to the wards." The headmaster's eyebrows rose at that, "Yeah, Najash told me the day we met that the wards on the house were what drew him there."

"I had no idea that that would happen," Dumbledore confided, "The attraction for snakes is likely tied in some way to the particular ward that attacks those who bear the Dark Mark, though a very unintentional, and counterintuitive, effect if that is so."

"That's another thing that probably caused the Dursley family some headaches." Mcgonagall spoke up again causing the headmaster to sigh once more.

"Don't take the wards away though, please." Harry was quick to add.

"Do not worry, Mister Potter." Dumbledore smiled at Harry's obvious concern for his family, "So long as you call Privet Drive your home, the wards will last until you turn seventeen. Now, am I to assume that this one snake didn't speak parseltongue or something?"

"Oh, he did." Harry frowned remembering the snake and Najash bumped his cheek, Harry hadn't realized Najash had climbed back to his shoulder. He smiled and pet his friend's head with a finger before continuing, "He was just a jerk. He wanted me to throw out Najash and take _him_ in. He kept coming back when I'd tell him to leave, too. We'd already decided I'd get my uncle and a shovel for the next time he came around. Najash was sure he would be fine fighting him, but I never wanted to risk it."

"I see," Dumbledore chuckled, "I never imagined there could be such drama in the world of snakes."

Fawkes made a chirping noise that sounded reminiscent of laughter, which set off Harry and then Mcgonagall to chuckle at the headmaster's lame description as well. After being dismissed, Harry said goodbye to the headmaster and the two Heads of House and headed back down the staircase to rejoin his friends.

"A truly incredible story, isn't it?" Dumbledore said once Harry had closed the door behind him, "Minerva, is there anything else you'd like to add that you didn't want to bring up with young Mister Potter here?"

"Yes, actually." She replied, which drew the headmaster's gaze from his candy dish, "It has come to my attention that many students come to Hogwarts without the knowledge of certain, important, skills. Chief among these being how to write with a quill on parchment in a legible and consistent manner. I have already spoken with Filius and Pomona, we would like to hold a once a week seminar where we help those students who need additional tutelage in using common school tools. Filius added that we should offer assistance on basic essay writing, since that is a major aspect of many classes. We expect to run for about a month."

"Ridiculous, there is no need to pander so much to muggleborn whiners!" Snape said angrily.

"Your house has exactly zero muggleborn students in it, Severus, which is why you weren't even asked about this. Your input is neither warranted, nor asked for." Mcgonagall replied pointedly.

"I see no reason not to, so as long as the teachers involved arrange things there is no reason for me to interfere. But, I must insist that it be open to all students, not merely muggleborn." Dumbledore said after a moment's thought. This wasn't really what he meant when he'd asked.

"Of course," Mcgonagall huffed, "not all magical raised children get the same amount of experience in writing-and-such as others, so it shall be open for anyone who wants to get some practice and advice. I have it on good authority that Mister Longbottom would be going, which should keep the less open-minded from complaining."

When the gargoyle silently stepped out of Harry's way at the bottom of the stairwell he saw Hermione and Neville talking to a painting on the other side of the hallway, something he still wasn't sure he was totally okay with. Moving pictures were one thing, but were these paintings just copies, or what? Something more?

Seeing a chance for a laugh, he crept up on his friends while putting his finger to his lips to beg the painting they were talking to not give him away. The person in the painting, a woman in a ball gown, smirked, but luckily his friends didn't notice. Coming up behind them while Hermione was berating the painting for not telling her where the headmaster's office was hidden, Harry clapped his hands together between their heads.

"Gah!" Neville shouted as he stumbled to the side and almost fell.

"Harry! That was rude!" Hermione chastised as she clutched her rapidly beating heart.

"Sorry," Harry got out between laughs, which the woman in the painting was mirroring, "that was just too easy to pass up. By the way, the headmaster's office is behind that gargoyle."

"Indeed," The woman in the portrait said, "it is not school policy to let students into the headmaster's office unless invited. If you need faculty assistance that is what the Heads of House are for."

"Oh," Hermione said, realizing that she might have become rather pushy when the portrait wouldn't answer her question despite clearly knowing the answer, "I'm sorry. I didn't think about that."

"That's alright, young lady, but please be more considerate in the future. Not all questions can be answered simply, even if the answer is known." The portrait-woman responded.

"Hey Hermione," Harry offered as a way to change her mood, "did you know that the Headmaster's familiar is a _phoenix_?"

"Everyone knows that." Neville said.

"Wait, is it a real phoenix like from mythology?" Hermione asked their pureblood friend.

"I don't know about muggle mythology," Neville answered, "but a phoenix is a magic bird of fire that bursts into flame when it dies and comes back from the ashes. Its tears are supposed to cure any ailment or injury too."

Harry and Hermione smiled broadly at that confirmation.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Harry was in good spirits as the group headed towards Hagrid's hut, when he'd returned to the tower he found that the missing snake skin had already been returned. It was now pinned to his headboard to dry out and Najash was curled around a stone with some magic mark on it that the elves had apparently left under his pillow. The little serpent had happily informed his wizard that the stone was enchanted to give off a light warmth, and would be quite comfortable when the weather got colder.

As they approached, Fang perked up on the porch and eyed Harry warrily. Harry frowned as he looked at the dog, but Dudley had no reservations whatsoever. As soon as he saw the pooch on the porch he sped up to be the first to grab the boar hound in a giant hug and laugh giddily as the big mutt licked his face repeatedly.

"Fang, what's goin' on out there?" Hagrid called from inside the cabin before he opened the door to check, "Who's that?" He took a quick look across the faces outside his door, "Harry and Hermione again!" He looked down to see what Fang was doing, "And Dudley too!"

Hagrid stopped as he came to the last two faces, "Not sure o' your names, though. Where're the other girls that were with ya yesterday, Harry?"

"This is Neville Longbottom and Justin Finch-Fletchley." Harry replied, indicating each boy in turn, "Parvati and Padma are doing homework together, I think."

"Nice ta' meet'cha Neville, Justin." Hagrid said, smiling and nodding at each of the boys. Both of whom were amazed at the man's incredible size. It just wasn't the same seeing him outside.

Dudley and Justin hit it off with Hagrid almost instantly. The giant man loved to talk about strange and amazing magical creatures, the bigger the better, and the boys couldn't get enough. Harry laughed as his cousin grilled Hagrid on what species from his 'list' were real and which were fake.

While they were talking, Hermione pulled out the _Sunday Prophet_ she had gotten that morning to show Harry an article in it. Apparently Gringotts had suffered its first successful break in in the bank's history. Though the article was quick to point out that nothing was stolen, merely that the culprit had escaped without being identified.

"Harry," Hermione asked as he read the article, "isn't that the vault that you and Hagrid went to just after your birthday?"

Harry looked again at the number, "You're right! Hey Hagrid," He held up the paper and showed off the headline, "This _was_ the vault we went to last month, right? Were you or the headmaster worried someone was going to try and break into it or something?"

Hagrid looked up from his tea, he had just finished telling Dudley everything he could think of about Griffons and was still a little scattered.

"You don' need ta be worryin' about that, Harry." He answered, "That's business between the headmaster an' Nicholas Flamel."

"Who's Nicholas Flamel?" Hermione asked excitedly as Hagrid's complexion paled considerably.

"Is he a goblin?" Dudley asked.

"What's so special about a bank robbery? Aren't they pretty common?" Justin added.

Harry's response was quite different, and drew the attention of the whole room, "Nicholas Flamel is _REAL_?" he almost shouted that last word as he stood up, wide-eyed.

Hagrid had reached a pasty-white colour by the time he muttered, "I should not have said that."

"Hagrid," Harry reiterated less loudly, punctuating every word, "Nicholas. Flamel. Is. _Real_?"

"Aye, Dumbledore trained under him! One o' the smartest wizards out there!" Hagrid replied before covering his mouth with his hand.

"Who is he, Harry?" Hermione asked, it was totally unlike Harry to get worked up over something like this.

"Don' be worryin' no more about it!" Hagrid impressed upon them before he could answer, "It's dangerous business, you kids'll get hurt!"

Dudley recognized the look on Harry's face, he wasn't going to just ignore it, "Hey Hagrid," he said to change the subject, "what's the most dangerous creature you've ever raised?"

It worked, and Hagrid happily launched into an explanation of acromantula. Anything to break the conversation away from Flamel, Dumbledore was going to be so angry with him.

On the way back to the castle that afternoon Hermione finally asked, again, the question that had been eating at her, "Who is Nicholas Flamel, Harry?"

Neville was the one to answer though, "I think I remember his name, actually. I'm pretty sure he's an alchemist or something. Weren't he and Dumbledore together the ones that discovered all the uses for dragon's blood."

"That's not all," Harry said, grinning, "he's so famous as an alchemist that he's even known in the muggle world."

"But wouldn't that break the Statute of Secrecy?" Neville asked.

Hermione was thinking the same thing, how could he be famous for _magic_ in the non magical world?

"It wouldn't if he was already famous before the Statute was even created." Harry replied.

Now Hermione was beginning to get suspicious. Harry hated history, why would he know so much about this person if he's that old.

"Wait," Hermione's brain finally caught up with the problem, "He can't be over four hundred years old and _also_ have trained Dumbledore _and _still be alive!"

"Unless he can." Dudley supplied knowingly, which caused everyone except Harry to look at him like he'd grown a second head.

"What?" Justin articulated.

"Nicholas Flamel is the famous 'mythical'," Harry said this with air quotes, "alchemist who invented…" He paused a moment for dramatic tension.

"The Philosopher's Stone." He finished when no one could supply the answer.

Dudley nodded, Justin was mystified, and Neville smacked his forehead for forgetting something so commonly known and important. Hermione however, immediately grabbed Harry by the shoulders.

"Harry Potter!" She shouted, "If I so much as _think_ that you're going to try to find that stone I'll… I'll…" She paused, in her anger she couldn't decide if hexing him, kicking him, or telling a teacher was worst at the moment.

She was deprived of her chance to pick when Dudley spoke up, "What makes you think it's here for Harry to even find?"

"Its obvious, Dudley." Hermione said while holding eye contact with Harry, "Think about how Harry described that vault. A whole vault for something in a brown bag and nothing else, and its secret business between the headmaster and Mister Flamel? Obviously the stone."

"Yeah, okay," Dudley nodded along, "but why _here_?"

"Gringotts is the safest place in all of Britain, except for maybe Hogwarts." Harry recited as Hermione finally released him, "That's what Hagrid said when we were on the way down to the vaults."

"But what's a 'Philosopher's Stone'?" Justin asked, "What made Hermione go mental like that?"

"It's a magic stone created with alchemy." Hermione supplied.

"And it either cures people of disease or makes them live longer?" Dudley asked, smiling.

"Almost," Harry laughed, "it contains the Elixir of Eternal Life."

"It also turns metals permanently into gold," Neville added, "I remember that now."

"You're joking with me!" Justin exclaimed, "Is that why wizards use real gold for everything? It was made with a magic stone?"

"Is that what you think is on the forbidden corridor?" Dudley asked Hermione.

"I think so, the timing fits." She said, glancing at Harry who nodded thoughtfully, _great._

"I'm not going to mess with the third floor, Hermione, I promise." Harry said as he put a hand on her shoulder, "Besides, the headmaster wouldn't leave it in the school with nothing to protect it. There's no way I would be able to get by whatever security he put around it. That makes more sense than anything else why students are barred from there."

Hermione held Harry's gaze for a moment, judging his sincerity, before smiling and pulling him into a hug.

"I'm sorry for shouting Harry, I just know how much finding something like the stone would mean to you. I was worried." Her voice cracked as he returned the hug.

"It's alright, Hermione. Let's head on inside and finish checking our transfiguration homework." The girl brightened at the prospect and the group resumed their walk.

_It's possible_, Harry thought to himself as they walked. He didn't really care about _immortality_ so much as what it _meant_. To be immortal you had to be able to cure or prevent every disease there was, if only for yourself; and if it could be done for yourself then it could be done for others. That was way more important to Harry than living forever.

**AN: I'm not sure how much I like my own version of Dumbledore TBH, I'm trying for the "good but manipulative" Dumbledore. Next chapter we'll check back in with Vernon, Petunia, and Remus. **


	12. Chapter 11: Quidditch

Quidditch

Harry shook his head as Draco Malfoy and his two goons, three if you counted Weasley lurking behind them, turned and walked over to the Slytherin table. Neville's gran had sent him a Remembrall in the mail this morning, a glass orb with white smoke in it that apparently turns red if the person holding it has forgotten something. Malfoy had taken great glee in making fun of Neville on his way to his own seat after seeing Neville's mere touch caused the smoke to turn deep crimson.

"Why did your Grandmother send something like that in the morning mail, Neville?" Harry asked. She had to have known that it could be embarrassing for her grandson to open in the middle of his friends.

"Oh," Neville sighed as he looked at the accompanying note again, "she was mad that I forgot to mention that Dudley and Hermione can both use wandless magic too. She said maybe with this I won't forget something so important again." He shook his head, "Fat chance of that. I forget everything. She also wanted me to ask about your tutor, but you already said you taught yourselves."

"Maybe _she_ needs the Remembrall." Dudley joked.

"You wouldn't kid like that if you'd met her," Harry admonished, "she was really… uh… I guess 'serious' is the right word."

"Well, we already said we would help teach you once we get used to the school schedule." Hermione said, "Professor Flitwick also asked to meet with us this weekend to talk about the book we were using to learn from."

"Yeah, maybe we could start doing that this weekend too?" Harry added, "After flying today we'll have had each class at least once."

Harry was really looking forward to flying, though Najash had already stated that he wanted no part of being completely separated from the ground. He was going to wait out that class in the Tower.

Hermione shuddered when Harry mentioned that they would be flying brooms for the first time today, she wasn't looking forward to that at all. Maybe she could get away with writing an essay or something for that class?

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Remus Lupin shook the dust off his pants as he got to his feet after the old portkey deposited him just outside the area of Potter Lodge. The portkeys from the main vault seemed to have become a little weaker over the last ten years, this was the second one where the landing wasn't as clean as it should have been.

As he walked down the path towards the main building, which the goblins had told him was basically a hunting lodge, he felt the presence of wards. Potter Lodge was supposed to be abandoned, and it was never heavily invested in to begin with, its wards should have decayed by now. Remus continued cautiously as he realized that it was only a series of Muggle-Repelling wards and a simple Aversion ward and not a standard magical defense ward. The lodge itself was sitting on an acre of clearing surrounded by forest in the south of Scotland. According to Axegut the building should have a basement that Remus thought would be a perfect hole for his transformations.

Remus stopped at the edge of the treeline to get a look around, someone had to be coming around here for there to be a ward on the property. He only needed to wait a moment before he saw a rider on a broom come out from behind the lodge. The rider looked young, pre-Hogwarts age even, and they were chased by two more, younger children. He waited a few more moments before revealing himself, and was rewarded when a black haired woman came running outside of the lodge, yelling at the child on the broom.

Remus began walking out of the forest towards the woman and children while she berated the now-downed rider, a boy. He had crossed half the distance before the woman noticed him; so he raised his hands over his head to show he was unarmed, but she drew a wand and pointed it at him anyways.

Confident that he could move aside if the woman cast something at him, he continued walking forward as he stated, "I apologize for startling you, I mean you no harm."

"Stay back, you won't take them!" The woman shouted as she pushed the three children, two boys and a girl, behind her.

Remus frowned, "Are you alright ma'am, are you in trouble?"

"Don't try to fool me! My father sent you! You won't take my children!" The woman was becoming hysterical as she screamed at him, she seemed she would do something dangerous soon.

Remus, realizing that this situation would escalate quickly, made a decision, dropping his hand as he drew his wand from it's wrist holster and firing a silent stunner spell at the woman. She had just enough time to register the attack before it struck, but not enough to dodge. Remus followed up with a swift levitating charm to keep her from hurting herself on the stairs she'd been standing on.

The children screamed as the woman that had been protecting them hovered a few inches off the ground, unconscious. The oldest jumped in front of the other two, his fists up and ready to fight. Remus thought for a moment about how to calm the poor boy down before deciding to lightly toss his wand up onto the porch behind the children and raise his hands again.

"I'm sorry for stunning her, your mother I guess?" He asked as he slowly edged forward, "I don't know what's going on here, so why don't we get her inside and you three can tell me all about it?"

The oldest was crying as the adult wizard advanced, he glanced back at the other two, obviously his siblings based on the resemblance, before nodding and slowly lowering his own hands.

"Alright," Remus said kindly as he stopped at the base of the stairs, "let me carry her then." He reached down and picked up the woman, then indicated for the children to open the door and precede him.

Inside he found a simple sitting room with a pair of worn couches and two chairs in front of a hearth, and laid the woman on one of the couches. Once done, he asked the children if there was tea in the house and set to make some after they had said that there was. While the water boiled he learned that their names were, from the oldest who was nine to the youngest who was only three, James, Marielle, and Heathcliff. The woman on the couch _was_ their mother, and they were hiding from her family. With the tea placed on the sitting room table, Remus finally stepped outside to retrieve his wand. When he walked back in with it, the children were immediately fearful again, despite the calming cups of tea in their hands.

Remus sighed and poured himself and the unconscious woman a cup before sitting down across from her and pointing his wand in her direction.

"Renervate." He incanted.

The woman jerked upright, head swiveling around until it locked onto first her children, then Remus, then the steaming cup of tea in front of her, "What's going on?" She asked, her voice weak and breaking.

"Do not worry, ma'am, I'm not here to hurt you or your children. I swear." He said, taking a sip of tea and gesturing for her to do the same.

She tentatively reached forward and took the cup from the table, allowing the bitter taste of the undoctored tea to fortify her nerves. After a second sip, with the strange man merely watching silently as he drank his own tea, she found the courage to speak again.

"Who are you?" She asked, "If you aren't here for us, then why _are_ you here?"

"Actually, I'm sort of the landlord here. Or at least his representative." Remus answered with a chuckle.

"Are you going to make us leave?" The woman had a renewed panic in her voice, "I don't know where else we could go! Everyone in town knew that this lodge was abandoned, no one has thought to look for us here."

"Not right away, ma'am." He placated, "Do you know who's land this actually is?"

"I'm not sure, honestly." She replied after thinking a moment, "It's never been used to my knowledge. My father said that it belonged to an old family, but they must not have been the 'right sort' because he never talked about them."

Remus frowned, "Who exactly _is _your father?"

The woman's face turned pale again at his question, but she responded, "My name is Temperance Smith,_ nee_ Burke. Caractacus Burke, Lord Burke's younger brother, is my father."

She looked up at the stranger in front of her as she continued, "I ran away to marry a muggle after the war. Joseph, my husband, died while I was pregnant with Heath, and my father offered to take us back and help me through the pregnancy. I was desperate, and truly wanted to believe he'd come around. But six months after Heath was born, he tried to take my children from me and cast me out again. He said he thought he could 'beat the muggle out of them' if he tried hard enough. I ran away and we've been living here for the past two-or-so years."

Remus nodded as she finished her story, "How have you survived here for over two years by yourselves? You couldn't go into the village for supplies for fear of people suspecting where you came from, and you couldn't go to the magical world either with your father looking for you."

She looked ashamed as she answered, "There was a large pile of Galleons in the basement in a safe, a few thousand. I would take a handful of those and apparate to a muggle town with a pawn shop and pawn the gold for muggle money, different places each time. I also apparated to grocery stores and the like when I needed."

"I see, I'm glad there was something here to help support you." the man said, "Allow me to formally introduce myself now. I am Remus Lupin, House Steward of the Potter family. Yes, that one."

Temperance's eyes widened in shock. She had stolen from the _Boy-Who-Lived_?

"We're so sorry! I swear, we'll find a way to pay back every Galleon!" She was quick to say.

Remus merely smirked as he replied, "I doubt that will be necessary, by the state of this place I would say you have already performed quite the service for House Potter."

"How do you mean?" She asked. True, the lodge had been absolutely filthy when they'd moved in, but she was always good with household charms so it was only a couple week's work to disinfect everything by herself.

"Albus Dumbledore dropped the Quaffle, so to speak, when it came to caring for House Potter while serving as Harry Potter's magical guardian. So much so that a squib who was distantly related to him found out about it and was able to take Harry's magical guardianship from Dumbledore via Gringotts. One of the most egregious things he did, in-house, was neglect the care of every property except the one Harry was living at."

He continued, "I have visited four now, of the five Potter properties in Great Britain. This is the first one that is actually usable, as is. All the others will need a few weeks or more of work to remove pest infestations, clean ten years of neglect, and also rehire staff to keep up the larger one at Potter Manor."

Temperance had a look of hope on her face, "So, you aren't going to make us leave?"

The three children, now huddled around their mother on the couch, also looked to Remus now. He smiled sadly at the family, "Not today, I'm going to let Ms. Acacia know about you. She is my actual employer since, obviously, Harry is in school. She's a very caring woman, and I do not think her heart would let her leave you with nothing or nowhere."

Temperance sighed in relief at the news, "Oh thank you! If there's anything we can do for you, just let us know."

"Well, could you show me the basement?" Remus returned, "That was actually why I chose to come to this property at all, it wasn't on Ms. Acacia's list."

Temperance led him downstairs after extracting a promise from James not to try riding that old broom again when he was supposed to be minding his brother. A third of the basement area was cut off from the rest, as well as the stairs up, by a metal cage with thick bars that was obviously meant for holding dogs. There was direct access to the grounds from one side, but that was still on the outside of the cage.

"Perfect." Remus intoned.

"I'm sorry, what were you looking for down here?" Temperance wasn't sure what to think of a man looking at a cage and his first thought being 'perfect'.

Remus pondered how best to approach that subject, he certainly didn't want to do it with the children around, but he didn't want to panic Mrs. Smith either. At least she was one of the least likely people to out him as a werewolf. Deciding on a course of action, he offered her his wand, handle first. She didn't seem like she would be a danger, even if she did attack him in fear.

"Ma'am, do not be alarmed," he began once she had accepted the wand with a confused look on her face, "I am a werewolf."

The effect was immediate. She stumbled backwards, falling onto her bum and scooting away from him before looking at her hands and realizing she still held _both _their wands. Once she realized that she was armed and he wasn't she pointed them at him, though her hands were shaky as she tried to aim.

"I still promise you that I mean you no harm. Everything I have told you today was the truth." Remus said evenly, kneeling down to be at eye level with her, "I came here today to see if this basement would work as a place I could lock myself away when I transform. This cage is perfect because I can transfigure the bars to silver and draw some runes on them to ensure the wolf can't break them."

Noticing a pair of stools near the cage, he walked over and sat in one after moving the other several feet away and indicating for her to sit. She didn't look like she would have accepted his hand at the moment, so he didn't offer to help her up.

"I didn't want to scare the children," he continued, "but I felt that you should know. Especially since I _am_ going to have to use the basement here. You and your children can't be here while I'm transformed."

Temperance, who had worked up the nerve to sit in the offered stool, looked heartbroken at that, "Then why did you tell them that we could stay?"

"Because you can," He placated, "at least for now. If you really want to stay here then we could work something out for the one night a month I have to lock myself up. But after seeing how nice the upstairs looked, I was hoping I could offer you a different solution?"

Temperance looked at him quizzically for a moment, "What did you have in mind?"

"As I said, there are other Potter properties that are in disarray, if you and your family are amenable, I would like to suggest to Ms. Acacia that we let you move into one of the other properties. One that is actually meant to house a family, I'm taken to believe there is only one bedroom here?"

Temperance nodded at that and he went on, "Before I continue, may I assume based on the state of the upstairs that you are adept at household charms?"

"Yes, in Hogwarts that was one of the few things I was really good at. I got an acceptable OWL in potions, and I'm pretty good at simple wards too, but not much else."

"Well then," Remus continued, "I would like to suggest to Ms. Acacia that you be allowed to choose one of the vacant properties to clean and inhabit. You would be paid for the service of cleaning, and then maintaining, the land and house. Once that is done, if you are agreeable, then I would like you to begin working on the others. Once a location is finished, other than the one you chose to live at, I'll have Gringotts erect stasis wards to keep it that way, like Dumbledore should have done in the first place."

"No offense intended, Mister Lupin," Temperance said with tears in her eyes, "but I'm rather glad that he neglected his duties in that regard. Without this place my father would have taken my children from me two years ago."

Remus nodded in understanding before rising from the stool again, just before he was going to suggest heading back upstairs he spied a second broomstick leaning in the corner. An old _Comet_ if his memory was right, though he couldn't place the number on those older brooms. A red Quaffle was laying on the ground beside it.

"James wouldn't happen to be interested in Quidditch, would he?" Remus asked while he walked over to the broom and ball.

"I made the mistake of taking him to a game when he was five," She said, "he's obsessed with it now. I actually named him after James Potter, and when my James found out that his namesake was a star chaser that became all he wanted to talk about. I know he's too young, and I'm worried he'll hurt himself, but I don't have the heart to actually take the broom away permanently. There's just so little for the children to do here because they can't wander too far into the woods."

"Ms. Acacia's husband prefers if I don't stop by for discussions while he's away at work, so I have some time. Do you think little James would be up to some one-on-one practise?" Remus asked as he held up the ball and gripped the old broom in the corner, "I happened to know James, Potter that is. He practised scoring against me and another of our friends each summer during the off-season while we were in school."

"Wait, Remus Lupin? _That_ Remus Lupin? The one that hung around James Potter and… Sirius Black? They were only a year behind me, How is that possible? You look so…so…" Temperance put her hand over her mouth as she realized how rude that statement was about to become.

"Old?" Remus laughed, trying to dismiss the mention of the traitor, "Yes, that sort of comes with it." He gestured at the cage as he answered.

"I'm so sorry, that was very rude of me." Temperance said hastily, "I'm sure that James would love a chance to fly with someone. Especially if you tell him that you knew Lord Potter."

"Well then, shall we head back upstairs?" Remus said cheerfully, "I'll transfigure something into a low-sitting goal post and we can have Marielle keep score."

Temperance nodded and smiled, trying very hard to focus on everything that Mister Lupin was offering her and her family and not on the fact that she was walking beside a werewolf.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Up!" Hermione practically shouted at the length of wood on the ground beside her, which did nothing but roll over just like every other time she'd tried.

"You have to _believe_ it's gonna happen, Hermione." Harry advised. His own broom had leapt into his hand on the first try, practically before he'd finished giving the command.

Hermione frowned, she didn't really _want_ the broom in her hand. That would mean she'd have to actually get on it and try flying…

"Alright, those who haven't gotten their brooms to come to them, please pick them up." The flying instructor, Madame Hooch, said as she walked between the two rows of students split by house, "Now, mount your broom and stand in a ready position."

Harry glanced over at both Neville and Hermione struggling to position on their brooms, Neville's almost seemed to wiggle under him like it didn't want to be ridden.

"Mister Malfoy, your grip is backwards and too far back, please correct that before I have to pry you off a castle wall." She said, glaring at the pompous Slytherin as his face grew red with anger.

"This is how I've flown a broom my whole life!" He yelled back.

"Then you've been doing it _wrong_ your whole life, a point from Slytherin for back talk." She returned, "Now when I blow my whistle, I want you to kick off and hover over the ground, then-"

The class didn't get to hear what to do then, as Neville shot up twenty feet into the air, screaming as his broom spun in circles while rising, before being bucked off and landing with a sickening _crunch_ of broken bone. Hermione immediately dropped the broom in her hands like it was going to bite her.

"Stay where you are! All of you!" Madame Hooch shouted as she ran over to Neville and examined his wrist, pointing at a grotesque angle from his arm, "It's broken, we're going to have to go to the Hospital Wing."

"No one else leaves the ground until I return! If I see a broom in the air you'll be out of Hogwarts faster than you can say 'Quidditch'!" She continued as she levitated Neville, still moaning in shock, up to the castle.

"Look, the squib lost his Remembrall." Malfoy jeered as he picked up the glass ball from the ground once the teacher was away, "I wonder where I should put it? Maybe on the roof of the astronomy tower?"

"Give that here Malfoy." Harry demanded, holding out his hand. The rest of the class began watching the exchange intently.

"I don't think I will, Potter. Come and take it if you really want it." Malfoy taunted as he kicked off the ground into the air with ease.

Harry wasted no time in remounting his own broom and kicking into the sky after Malfoy with Hermione shouting at him from the ground about being expelled. Harry felt the magic of the broom underneath him respond instantly to his commands and he grinned as he took flight. Harry zoomed straight at Malfoy, aiming to grab the remembrall out of his hand as he wasn't holding it tightly. Malfoy panicked when he saw Harry charge directly at him and spun away from the smaller boy in a very wobbly barrel roll.

"If you want it that bloody bad then take it!" Malfoy shouted in fear as he hurled the ball at the nearest tower of the castle.

Harry immediately chased after it, watching the ball's trajectory as he flew at full speed towards the castle. With only fifteen feet before he would hit the stone tower Harry pulled his broom up vertically, stalling and slowing his speed tremendously as he swiveled his head and watched the approaching Remembrall before snatching it out of the air with his free hand. Harry had slowed enough by the time his feet hit the stone that he was simply able to kick back off the wall and return to his classmates, holding Neville's Remembrall up in triumph the whole way.

Harry knew something was wrong the moment he touched down, Hermione was white as a sheet as she looked not _at_ him, but _behind _him.

"Mister Potter, please come with me." Harry heard Professor Mcgonagall's voice behind him, "_Now_."

As Harry was led away by Mcgonagall, he glanced back to see Hermione watching him and silently sobbing while Parvati put a comforting arm around her shoulders, he mouthed 'sorry' to them before turning back to keep up with the professor.

Harry wasn't sure exactly what he could say in his defense. He'd broken the rules, no doubt, but he felt that it wasn't fair that she hadn't made Malfoy come to be punished as well. His frustration turned to curiosity, then horror, when she stopped at the charms classroom and asked Professor Flitwick if she could 'borrow Wood for a moment.' Did Hogwarts _actually_ use corporal punishment like Mister Filch liked to suggest?

His fears were put aside when an older student, a Gryffindor that Harry remembered seeing in the common room a few times, came out of the classroom. Mcgonagall guided them a few doors down to an unused room and kicked Peeves the Poltergeist out of it. Before turning back to the students, she took her wand and erased the profanity that the prankster spirit had written all over the blackboard.

Once the older student, who had introduced himself to Harry as Oliver Wood as they crossed the hall, asked what was going on the Professor smiled like a cat with a canary.

"Mister Wood, I believe I have found you a Seeker." She said proudly.

"Huh?" Harry asked.

"Really?" Wood talked over him, who began to circle Harry to examine him more closely, "Are you any good at flying, Potter?"

"What's going on here?" Harry asked, his confusion showing more and more on his face, "Am I not in trouble?"

"Oh, make no mistake Mister Potter, you are most certainly in trouble. But I am hoping to give you a rather different form of 'punishment'." She said the last word with a hint of mirth and sarcasm, "Have you heard of Quidditch?"

"It's a sport on broomsticks is about all I know about it." Harry responded, "I was sort of interested in it, and flying that broom earlier was awesome. I just felt so… _free_. But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Mister Potter," She explained, "the Gryffindor Quidditch team is missing its most important player this year, and there is no one who even tried out for the position from the older year groups. If this state had continued until October, the cutoff for team entry, Gryffindor would have had to concede the entire inter-house Quidditch league for the year. Which would also effectively drop us from contention in the House Cup as well."

"And you think I could be that player? The most important position on the team? Why me? I don't even know the rules!" Harry had no idea what was going on here, was he being offered the position instead of being punished? Or was embarrassing himself trying to play this sport he'd never seen before supposed to _be_ the punishment?

"No offense professor," Wood interjected, "but what makes you think he'd be a good seeker? He has the build, for sure, but he's a first year. Also, he's muggle raised from what I heard, so he's got no experience on a broom."

"What does experience matter in the face of raw, natural talent?" Mcgonagall answered smugly, "You should have seen him earlier, he pulled out of a full-speed charge directly at a tower wall in time to catch that Remembrall still in his hand. Just snatched it out of the air like picking a flower, then kicked off the wall and landed. I doubt Charlie Weasley could have pulled out of that charge in time while _still_ catching his target."

"Weasley?" Harry asked. _Another _one?

"Charlie Weasley graduated last year." Oliver lamented, "He was the seeker and team captain. He was the best seeker the team has seen in years. The twins are both on the team now. Seeing all three on a team together last year was like poetry in motion."

"If the team needs a player then I don't mind trying out." Harry said, confident now that he wasn't _really_ in trouble, "What does a 'Seeker' do?"

"Almost exactly what you just did outside," Mcgonagall answered, "There are three kinds of balls in Quidditch, the seeker only really cares about one, the Golden Snitch. Its slightly smaller than that Remembrall, and flies using magical wings. The seeker's job is to catch the snitch, which marks the end of the game and gives the successful seeker's team points equal to fifteen goals."

Harry frowned, that didn't sound like a very interesting game at all. What was the point of the other players if the seeker could invalidate an entire game just by doing his job?

Seeing the young boy's trepidation, Mcgonagall went for the kill, "Did you know that your father played Quidditch?" Harry's eyes widened as his attention was suddenly fixed on the professor's words, he had forgotten that his father played on the school sports team. Obviously that sport _had_ to be Quidditch, since there wasn't another one that was played at Hogwarts.

"He was team captain for the last three years of his schooling as well. He was a chaser, the position that scores goals, and not a seeker; but I still think he would be rather proud of you for your flying skill." She finished.

Harry's grin at learning that he shared something with his father helped Mcgonagall not feel quite as bad about using his parents to get him to play, she really wanted to win this year!

"As well," She finished, "I believe that there is still at least one award that your father won for his Quidditch victories on display in the trophy room."

"In that case I'd definitely like to try it out." Harry said, "But I didn't think that first years were allowed to have a broom at Hogwarts? There's no way one of those school brooms could compete could they? They all looked pretty old and worn out."

"I will speak to the headmaster about relaxing that rule in this case. There is already precedent for it, though a century or more old. At the conclusion of class today I will visit your aunt about getting you a broom. It will need to be fast, since you're a seeker, and I daresay it could be faster than most because of your innate skill."

"Maybe a Nimbus Two-Thousand? Or the newest Cleansweep?" Wood offered.

"We shall see," Mcgonagall responded, "it will depend on Harry's aunt. She may decide that the sport is too dangerous and forbid him, and I shan't argue with her if that's her decision."

"I understand, ma'am." Harry said, "Please tell her about my dad being on the school team when you do. Uh, would it be alright if I visited Neville to make sure he's alright? He broke his wrist really bad right before that thing with Malfoy."

"Perhaps wait until tonight then, if his wrist was broken too badly then Mister Longbottom was probably given a sleeping draught to ease the pain of the bone-reknitting potion. Even more likely if Madame Pompfrey had to vanish his bones and grow all-new ones."

"That makes sense, ma'am. What should I do now, then?" Harry asked. "Flying class doesn't let out for another half-hour."

"Surely you have some homework you could get ahead on? That will be something else you will need to consider if you want to join the team." Mcgonagall stated with a raised eyebrow; Harry nodded sheepishly, took the dismissal for what it was, and left for Gryffindor Tower to collect his work and tell Najash about what happened while he was sleeping.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"That poor woman has been taking care of three children while hiding out in a run-down hunting lodge?" Petunia's voice was weak after she listened to Remus's report of Potter Lodge.

"Yes," He answered, "apparently there was an emergency fund in the basement that she was able to access to pay for necessities. But I can't imagine what that kind of living would be like for the children."

"I think your plan to let her clean a house so she can live in it is a great one." Vernon added as he put down his tea, "We can't in good conscience just kick her and her family out, and this way it'll keep anyone in your world from knowing that the properties need work in the first place."

"Those were my thoughts exactly." Remus answered, "As much as I'd like to bring Dumbledore to task for letting things get into this state, nothing we throw at him would stick. It would be better to just let everyone think that House Potter is as strong as ever."

Vernon nodded his agreement. His nephew may be heir to a lordship, but that didn't mean anything if the family name was dragged through a ton of negative press.

"Could you take me to meet them on Saturday or Sunday?" Petunia asked, "We could take a folder with us of the different properties and let her and the children pick one out while we take the chance to get to know them. If they seem alright we may be able to introduce the children to some of Harry and Dudley's friends, maybe start with Tina? We wouldn't need to worry about their ability to hide their magic with her."

"That would be excellent." Remus said, "I was wondering as well, is Hedwig here by chance? She found me on Tuesday and left a rather interesting note from two of Harry's classmates concerning my own time in Hogwarts, but didn't stay long enough for me to write a response."

"She's been here since Tuesday afternoon despite us not planning to write the children for a while." Petunia answered with a smile, "We figured she knew something we didn't."

After verifying that it was okay to work magic in their living room, Remus began composing his return letter to the Weasley twins. Hopefully they would agree that Harry deserved to be the one to inherit the Map. If not, there was always the Marauder way of doing things to ensure it ended up in the right hands.

It took longer than he had planned to get the enchantments on the letter to behave _just right_; and by the time he was done Petunia had asked him to stay for dinner, something he certainly wasn't going to say 'no' to. Her cooking was almost as good as he remembered Lily's being.

As Petunia was gathering the plates from the table after they had finished eating, the doorbell rang. Vernon was the one to check on it, and was a little put off to find Professor Mcgonagall waiting on his front porch.

"Did something happen?" He asked as he let the woman in, "One of the boys get into trouble?"

"Of a sort." She returned, "Neither of them is hurt, nor Hermione, though I was hoping I could speak to you and Petunia about something concerning Harry."

"What's wrong?" Petunia asked as she came into the living room, followed by Remus, "Is everything okay?"

Mcgonagall was prepared to tell Petunia about the incident in flying class today, but seeing her former student in the Dursley home threw her concentration.

"I'm sorry, ma'am." Mcgonagall said as she temporarily turned away from Petunia, "Mister Lupin, what are you doing here?"

"I am fulfilling my duties as Steward of House Potter, Professor Mcgonagall." He answered smoothly, "You said you were here about Harry, has something happened?"

"Perhaps we could sit down for a moment?" The professor suggested, she needed a moment to categorize that new tidbit of information, "This may take a few minutes to get through."

After the four had found seats and evening tea, Mcgonagall continued explaining, "This afternoon was Harry and Hermione's first flying class-"

"Oh no, did one of them fall and get hurt?" Petunia interjected, "Hermione was so worried about it."

"No ma'am," Mcgonagall answered patiently, "a student _did_ fall and hurt his wrist. But he should be right as rain by tomorrow morning. No, what I want to tell you about happened right afterwards…"

"So Harry almost breaks his neck while skirting the rules and you want to _reward_ him?" Petunia hissed after Mcgongall had finished telling her hosts about Harry's altercation with Malfoy.

"In his defense, Missus Dursley," Mcgonagall apologized, "Harry seemed to be in perfect control of the broom the entire time. Frankly the only person I've ever seen quite that comfortable in the air on their first flight was Harry's father."

"You really think he's that good?" Lupin leaned forwards to gauge how serious the teacher was as the Dursleys looked at him to elaborate. "It's just," He added, as he saw Petunia glare at him, "James was one of the best flyers Gryffindor had ever seen. He was Quidditch captain from his fourth year until he graduated. Is Harry really that good?"

"Perhaps even better," Mcgonagall corrected, "James may have been a flyer, but Harry was able to follow the path of Mister Longbottom's Remembrall with his eyes while moving at full speed. It was truly remarkable."

"What did Harry say when you asked him about this?" Vernon asked. He knew Harry was pretty good at sports, even if the boy wasn't the biggest fan of them.

"He said he found flying to be exhilarating," She answered, "and said he would love to try out the game at the very least. Learning, after the fact, that his father was a Gryffindor Quidditch champion just made him that much keener to try."

Petunia looked at Remus for a moment before asking, "Mister Lupin, do you believe that Quidditch is too dangerous for an eleven-year-old? I presume there must be a reason that first years need parental permission to join the team. Especially if they aren't even supposed to have their own broom at school that year either."

"Quidditch can sometimes be a rough game." He answered honestly, "Though much less so in the school league. Harry's position as seeker isn't especially dangerous on the field, per se, but injuries up to broken bones are pretty common for just about anyone playing. One of the elements of the game is dodging two medium-sized iron balls called 'Bludgers' that fly around on their own and try to disrupt the players. One of the positions on each team has a bat that they use to play defense for the others from the bludgers."

"Broken bones? _Common?_" Petunia gasped, "How could a sport be worth risking his education if he broke his arm or something? How would he practise for classes?"

"I can answer that." Mcgonagall supplied, "The second question at least. The student who fell today actually broke his wrist pretty horribly. It was mangled enough that he wasn't allowed to have visitors until just before dinner tonight."

Petunia covered her mouth with her hand to stop from releasing a sob on the poor boy's behalf, but Mcgonagall pressed on with her explanation and shook Petunia's world, "He should be good as new by breakfast. Madame Pomfrey simply vanished all the bones in his hand and gave him a dose of Skele-Gro to replace them, all while he slept peacefully under the effects of another potion to keep from feeling pain or discomfort."

"Thats-" Vernon began, haltingly.

"The wonders of magic." Mcgonagall finished for him, "You see, any game would be on a Saturday, and that meant that even if a bone were broken they would be able to make it to class on Monday. That isn't to say that we don't care about injuries, obviously we try to minimize them where possible; but it does tend to change the meaning of "serious injury" in the magical world when things that I know take muggles weeks, months, or even longer to recover from can be bounced back from in mere days."

"That's incredible." Petunia breathed, "I knew that magical healing was amazing, but disappearing broken bones and growing new ones in their place overnight is far-and-away more impressive than making cuts heal without scars."

"You likely never heard of it because Skele-Gro would have been completely beyond your ability to brew. As well as having a very short shelf life, it actually requires spells to be cast over it in the brewing process." Remus explained to her, "I've been told it's not especially difficult to brew, but it does require a witch or wizard to even begin."

"I feel after this conversation that I already know the answer to this," Petunia finally asked, "but, Mister Lupin, do you think that Harry's parents would have wanted him on the team?"

"James? Absolutely." He said without reservation, "Lily would have argued, but probably caved if Harry asked, though she likely would have demanded certain academic standards for him to be allowed to continue."

Petunia smiled at that answer, exactly like she would have expected from her sister, "Alright, then that's what I'll do. As long as Harry maintains a 'B' average he can play on the team."

"In wizarding terms that would be an 'Exceeds Expectations', professor." Remus explained.

"Well," Mcgonagall concluded, "as well as he's done in my class so far, coupled with his downright sterling reports from Professors Sprout and Flitwick, I think that shouldn't be an issue at all. I also spoke with him today right after the incident about getting ahead on his homework if he wanted to be part of the team. I shall be sure to impress upon him that his academics come first."

Vernon and Petunia nodded at that, satisfied that Harry wouldn't let himself fall behind.

"There is only one other thing we need to take care of then." Mcgonagall continued, "He shall need a broomstick of his own. The school brooms are fine for learning the basics of flight, but there's no way they would be allowed anywhere near an actual Quidditch match."

"Oh dear," Petunia said, "How much does a broomstick cost? I wouldn't want to pull it out of his education fund if its a lot."

"Brooms can range from one hundred Galleons up to around eight hundred." Remus offered.

"That's preposterous!" Petunia exclaimed, after explaining the conversion to pounds Vernon was right beside her.

"That's pretty standard." Remus countered, "A broom is one of the most important investments a witch or wizard can make, besides their own wand. You probably don't want to hear this, but in your shoes James would have bought Harry the best broom imaginable the moment he showed any talent at it at all. He and his father both lived by the motto that you should never fail due to subpar equipment."

Petunia sighed in defeat at Remus' words. Since meeting the werewolf and finally having a connection to the other part of Harry's parents lives, she and Vernon had implicitly agreed that they should try and treat Harry as much like his parents would have done as they could. At least with regards to the magical world.

"Could you take care of that tomorrow morning then, Mister Lupin?" Petunia finally said after a short deliberation with her husband, "I'm sure I don't know the first thing about brooms. You could pick him out a good one for a seeker."

"Would you mind if Professor Mcgonagall joined me?" He asked hastily, "I'm a little out of touch with the finer things, she would be better for choosing an appropriate broom since all I really know about the current models is pricing. I was thinking of asking you to let me buy him one for Christmas, but I can think of something else."

"Of course, whatever you think is best." Petunia responded, "And I'm sure you can come up with something just as perfect for Christmas."

"In that case could we go this evening?" The professor in question asked, "That way he can have the broom delivered in the morning and have it available for him for practise on Saturday. It's scheduled for before breakfast, so if the broom were sent tomorrow it wouldn't get to him in time."

Vernon grinned at the woman, he could recognize a fellow sports fan when he saw one, "Am I to take it that you are rather invested in this… Quidditch?"

"Oh yes, I'm an avid fan of the sport. I'm hoping that with Harry's help the school cup will be sitting in the Gryffindor common room at the end of this year."

"An admirable goal," Vernon declared, "I was worried the boy would get soft away at that school. He didn't really play outside much around here unless Dudley was dragging him into it, so knowing that he's going to be doing something to keep in shape up there is good."

Mcgonagall smiled, "Yes, your son actually has a couple of his housemates running with him some mornings before breakfast. They have a circuit they jog around the Black Lake. I'm not sure what they'll do once the snows set in, though."

The professor glanced at the clock on the wall as she told the family about Dudley, "Mister Lupin, we should really be getting out if we are going to make it to Quality Quidditch Supplies on time tonight. They'll certainly open back up for _me _if we arrive a little late, but not if they are already gone for the evening."

After saying their goodbyes, the two magicals stepped around to the back alley that was used for apparition and left for Diagon Alley. Only Mcgonagall and the Headmaster had clearance within the wards to apparate on the property.

"It just doesn't end, does it Pet?" Vernon asked once they settled back down, just the two of them.

"Yes, but it's certainly exciting." She returned, "I hope we can get to see one of Harry's games. Maybe since I'm a squib I could get us a pass to come visit? It would tip our hand to Dumbledore, but with Remus and Mcgonagall on our side I don't think that should be a problem much longer."

"Something to think about," her husband agreed, "But maybe not in the first term? Give us a little more time to get everything with Harry's House straightened out."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The next morning at breakfast, Harry Potter received a five foot long package delivered by a quartet of owls. The attached letter informed him that it was his new broomstick, and that he shouldn't open it at breakfast to keep the other first years from rioting.

Meanwhile, further down the table, Hedwig delivered an envelope to the Weasley twins. Their neighbors, however, couldn't figure out why the twins were over-the-moon excited to receive a blank letter in the mail.


	13. Chapter 12: The Magical Map

**AN: I wanted to address a few questions in the reviews about some elements I have changed from Canon, since these are things other people might be wondering too.**

**happylady: In a previous chapter it was revealed that Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw have flying lessons first period on Fridays. I split the class because when I tried to write out a schedule I found that the little bitt hat JK had given us seemed to contradict across books. I took that as leave to design my own schedule that stays as close as possible to the original.**

**Fast Frank: Borgin and Burke's was est. ~1863. Temperance's father is not **_that _**Caractacus Burke. Even in canon, families have a tendency to reuse names. This is just a descendant.**

The Magical Map

"He actually challenged you to a duel?" Neville asked incredulously, "What did he think would happen if you'd accepted? He can't cast wandlessly like you can, you would wipe the floor with him."

"I don't know about that," Harry deflected as he opened the door to the Great Hall to join the others for breakfast. He had elected to go walk Neville down from the Hospital Wing so he could schedule a time for Madame Pomfrey to examine Najash, "He probably knows spells I don't since he grew up with magic, and it's not like I can cast anything without a wand. Plus its less accurate that way."

"Still," the other boy continued, "he must have been real jealous that you got on the Quidditch team your first year."

"Didn't even get that far," Harry returned, grinning, "he was so angry that I wasn't expelled that he did the whole duel thing before it came up. It'll be a nasty shock when he finally does hear about it I'll bet."

"It's really cool too," Neville said wistfully, "I wish I could have seen you fly. You must be really good. First years aren't normally allowed on teams, so you're probably the youngest seeker in ages."

"A century, according to Hermione." Harry answered with a chuckle, "As soon as I told her she almost _sprinted_ to the library to check out a bunch of books on Quidditch."

"That sounds like Hermione." Neville laughed as the two sat down.

"What were you saying about me Harry?" Hermione asked after the boys had sat down.

"Just telling him about last night, Hermione, you and the library." Harry replied.

When the mail owls began their delivery that morning there were several fingers pointed at the large package headed towards the group of first year gryffindors, who were seated at the Ravenclaw table today to join Parvati's sister Padma and her friends. Despite the interest the owls generated, Harry's eyes followed a spec of pure white as Hedwig flew over to the Weasley twins at the Gryffindor table. He frowned when the twins took a letter from her and immediately began whispering to each other conspiratorially. His frown turned into a smirk when his irate owl launched herself off the table by flying between their heads, whacking each with a wing as she flew past and knocking their faces into their respective bowls on the table. His owl accounted for, Harry accepted the large package from the four delivery owls and set it beside him.

"Serves those two right, doesn't it girl?" Harry asked once Hedwig made it over to him, "Here, let me since they were too rude."

He gave Hedwig several pieces of bacon while Hermione stroked the snowy owl's head and back. Once the bird was satisfied, she flew off again. Harry opened the letter that was attached to the big package he'd received, and learned that Mister Lupin and Professor Mcgonagall had bought him a Nimbus Two-Thousand last night. Midway down the letter he was warned that Aunt Petunia only allowed him to play on the condition that he keep an 'Exceeds Expectations' grade and he smirked at that, _no problem_. His eyes bulged when he got to the price that Mister Lupin had added to the bottom of the letter, but calmed a bit when he read about his father's and grandfather's stance on things like that.

Hermione didn't let it go quite as easily, "That's ridiculous!" She exclaimed upon seeing the seven hundred Galleon price tag, "How could it be worth that much?"

One table over, Ronald Weasley stared at Potter in puzzlement, "Malfoy, hey Malfoy." he quietly called, trying to get the blonde's attention without alerting the Gryffindors one table over.

"What is it weasel?" Malfoy spat back after he'd heard his name a half dozen times.

"Aren't first years not allowed to have brooms?" the redhead asked, "Because Potter just got a broom in the mail. That package looks about the same size as the one that Charlie's old Comet came in."

"Really?" Malfoy mused aloud, "What is this school coming to when a half-blood like Potter gets to flaunt all the rules of this school? He should have been expelled yesterday!"

When the three Gryffindors got up from breakfast, leaving the Indian twins behind, Malfoy followed them with Crabbe and Goyle hastening to keep up with him. Making a split-second decision, Ron stuffed another sausage in his mouth and got up to follow behind.

"Potter!" Malfoy called as he approached the group, "You're in for it now!"

He grabbed the package out of Harry's hands before the smaller boy could react. Feeling the mostly hollow box he shook it once before tossing it back at Harry who stumbled backwards as he caught it.

"First years aren't allowed to have their own brooms!" Malfoy crowed triumphantly, "My father is on the board of directors! When he hears of this he'll push for your expulsion, especially after you attacked me yesterday and weren't even punished!"

"Is something wrong here Mister Malfoy?" Professor Flitwick interrupted the boy's tirade. The diminutive teacher had seen the Slytherins moving to intercept Harry and his friends, and had hurried to cut off any altercation.

"Potter has a broom professo-" Malfoy began to explain, pointing at Harry only to be cut off by Flitwick.

"Oh yes! I heard about your special circumstances with the Quidditch team Mister Potter!" Professor Flitwick eyed the wrapped box that Harry held with obvious interest, "What model did you end up going with then?"

Harry glanced around worriedly, pretty much the whole school was watching what was going on. _Great_.

"It's a Nimbus Two-Thousand, sir." Harry responded quietly. Not that that mattered as the youngest Weasley, who'd stayed just out of the conversation so far, lurched forward to get a better look at the box.

"A Nimbus?" He shouted, "That's the best racing broom on the market! It can get to a hundred miles an hour in seven seconds!"

Harry groaned as the whispered conversations of the school population rose into a dull roar behind him.

"Yes, _thank you _Weasley." He forced out as he hurried out of the great hall to avoid being stopped and questioned by everyone in range, Hermione and Neville following close behind.

"That could have gone smoother." Hermione commented as they hurried up to Gryffindor Tower to drop off the broomstick and get ready for class.

When they arrived at the potions classroom Professor Snape was already standing in front of the blackboard with his trademark scowl covering his face. As soon as the trio entered the class the professor stalked forwards.

"Potter, Granger," his distaste was palpable, "I see no reason that the only competent Gryffindors in this year should partner with each other and watch the least competent fail repeatedly."

Harry and Hermione's eyes widened at Snape, how could he get away with talking about his students like this?

"So," the potions master continued, "one of you will work with Longbottom to make sure he doesn't destroy another cauldron. The other can work with Weasley, since he is again an odd-man-out."

Indeed, all the other Slytherins had entered and paired off already, leaving the redhead as the only green-trimmed robe standing alone. Harry was fuming, he and Hermione had talked about suggesting exactly that to Neville if today was as bad as last week. But they weren't going to call him out in front of the whole class!

"That won't be a problem, _sir_." Harry bit out as he gestured for Neville to sit with him. Hermione quietly walked to the workstation beside him and sat down before gesturing for the redhead to sit beside her while she began organizing the tools on the table to her liking.

What followed was the slowest brewing of a potion that Harry had ever done, even more so than the very first time he and Hermione had ever tried to brew a real potion back home. He had to go behind Neville after every task and salvage the ingredients the other boy had mis prepared. At first Harry thought that Neville _had_ to be doing this on purpose, no one could be this bad at cutting roots or grinding leaves, but he stopped himself from getting angry when he noticed Neville's hands shaking as he brandished his knife like it was going to turn around and attack him under its own power. Snape sneered at them when he saw Harry patiently teaching Neville how to hold and use a knife properly, but didn't dock points or comment.

Hermione, meanwhile, was ready to scream at Ron Weasley after the first hour. Every time she tried to correct him on something, from how to properly cut ingredients to just how much constituted _an ounce_, the up-himself Slytherin insisted that he knew what he was doing and didn't need help from _her_. He was careful to not actually say the 'M' word like Malfoy often did, but Hermione could tell what the redheaded jerk thought of her. She spent most of the time she wasn't trying to instruct him figuring out how she was going to make their potion even partially presentable after this idiot was done ruining it.

"Weasley stop!" she shouted as she swatted the boy's hand away from the cauldron, launching an _unmeasured_ handful of diced dandelion roots across the floor of the lab.

"What is going on?" Snape thundered as he stormed across the room to the pair, "Granger, five points from Gryffindor for this disruption!"

"Weasley was about to put dandelion roots into the potion without measuring them!" She quickly returned.

"Another point for backtalk, Granger." Snape hissed back.

"It looks like about the right amount." Weasley stupidly added.

"It looks like about _three times_ the right amount!" Hermione shrieked at him.

"Another two points from Gryffindor, Granger, control yourself." Snape said as he casually glanced at the diced roots on the floor. He gestured his wand and a portion of them, about a third, rose off the floor and flashed with some sort of magical cleaning spell before floating over to the arguing pair's workstation and dropping onto their scale.

"It appears to me that Mister Weasley's eyeball math was very nearly perfect." The professor said while looking Hermione straight in the eye, "Three points to Slytherin. Now finish your potion before the period is over or you will receive a zero for the day."

It took Harry until the very last available minute to finish the potion that morning. By the end of the class Neville was much more confident at preparing the ingredients, though he was still too easily distracted to be any good at the actual brewing process. When they submitted their work to the professor, he glared at the two of them without even examining the vial before saying 'Acceptable' and sending them on. Hermione, who brought hers and Weasley's potion right behind Harry, watched in mounting horror as the potions master examined the vial intensely.

"Poor quality, Miss Granger." Snape scowled at the girl, who looked on the verge of tears, "Perhaps if you had been more attentive to your own work and not been busy bossing your partner around you would have presented something that was at least acceptable. I expect better in your next class or there will be remedial detentions."

Hermione fled the class in tears and it was left to Harry to gather her things and bag and follow her; hopefully to the Great Hall, though Harry suspected she had run to the dorms to be alone. The same thing happened when students bullied her at her old school after they met, she hid in her room and didn't want to bother other people with it.

The whole way to lunch, Harry was lost in his thoughts about Professor Snape. He had seemed genuinely nice last week when Harry was asking the professor about Najash, and he hadn't been especially hostile during the meeting with the headmaster, despite apparently having some issue with Harry's family. Harry just couldn't wrap his head around this teacher's actions today. It was like he was a different person in class than in private.

When Harry made it to the Great Hall he saw that Hermione wasn't there. _Oh well_, he thought to himself, and headed to the Gryffindor table to fix the two of them a sandwich plate to take up to the dorm. As he made his way back up to the dorm while laden with both his and Hermione's bag, as well as a plate of food, Harry was unaware of twin shadows following him until he found himself grabbed roughly from behind and quickly pulled into a nearby empty classroom while the plate of chicken mayo sandwiches floated in behind him.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Fred and George looked at each other as they held the envelope between them. "_To Messrs Weasley and Weasley_" it was addressed, though that wasn't nearly as important as the handwriting it was addressed _in_. The twins had spent the last two years becoming intimately familiar with the legendary map left behind by the Marauders. It had a mind of its own; four of them in fact, that sometimes argued with each other. The important thing though, was that each of the four illustrious marauders had a distinct handwriting when speaking through the map, and there was no mistaking the perfect calligraphy of 'Mister Moony.'

"Could it really be him?" Fred asked his brother.

"It must be." George answered as he cracked the envelope open, revealing a blank piece of parchment.

_Brek_, the snowy owl that delivered the envelope barked at the twins, who looked back at her for a moment.

"You're Harry's owl, right?" George asked.

"He's over that way today," Fred continued, pointing towards the Ravenclaw table where the owl's owner was discreetly watching, "thanks."

_Brek_, the bird barked again, angrily, before launching herself into the space between the twins, whacking each on the back of the head as she passed and knocking them into the bowls of porridge they had been eating just a minute ago.

The twins came up to laughter from the Gryffindors around them as they looked at each other, faces covered in porridge, and pointed their wands at the other's face.

"Scourgify." They said together, washing the mess off each other before glancing over at Harry Potter giving his bird bacon.

"Brother mine," Fred began, to continued laughing from those around him, "I propose we make a mental note."

"Yes, brother?" The George replied, winking at Angelina Johnson across the table who was in stitches laughing at them, "Would that be a note to you, or me, or us?"

"Us," the first said quickly, "definitely us."

"If that suggestion is to always thank Potter's owl whenever she delivers to us. I agree wholeheartedly."

"Indeed brother, indeed."

With the excitement over, the twins looked back at the letter in their hands. They had thought it miraculous that there was no porridge on it until they realized that it had been enchanted to have such things slide off it.

"Hey Lee, can you call us 'present' in History today?" Fred asked without looking up from the blank parchment.

"We have something we need to work on." George added, looking up at his friend with a grin on his face.

After the two finished eating, though no more porridge for today at least, they headed out to find an unused classroom where they wouldn't be disturbed. Once they had verified that they weren't followed they sealed the door to the classroom with every locking spell both of them knew, which was quite a few since they were used to keeping their nosy mother out of their room at home.

"Now or never, brother mine." George said once they had sat down together at a desk, the letter between them.

The two stared intently at the blank parchment which barely registered as magical when examined, but they knew better than that. If the Marauder's Map had felt as powerfully enchanted as it really was then it wouldn't have been rotting in Filch's box of confiscated oddities. The enchantments on the letter were almost certainly going to be locked away the same way as the map, and that would be the final confirmation that this was _the _Mister Moony.

Twin redheads pointed their wands at the letter and proudly said the words they discovered two years ago, the motto by which they now lived their life, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Immediately, the parchment began to populate itself with flowing, beautiful words:

_"Mister Moony is pleased to know that the work of he and his illustrious friends has not been left merely to rot…"_

At lunch time, after conversing with the enchanted parchment for two periods, the twins headed out to track down Harry Potter. When Fred spied Harry heading into the Great Hall for lunch the pair resolved to wait and see if they could ambush him on his way out. They were rewarded much sooner than anticipated when he came out carrying a small plate with sandwiches on it only a minute or two later.

Once Harry had made it past the crowds on his way to, apparently, Gryffindor Tower, the twins made their move; one grabbing Harry under the arms and quickly yanking him into a classroom as he walked by while the other whipped out his wand and caught the plate of food that Harry had tossed in his panic, picked up the two dropped bags, and followed behind.

After his moment of panic, Harry recalled what Dudley had told him about a situation like this and how to get out of it, though he hadn't bothered to practice very much. The smaller boy curled his legs and lower body up like a reverse-crunch before dropping all of his weight at once and pitching forward, grabbing his assailant's arms as he did and bringing his attacker rolling over him to land hard on the stone floor as Harry landed on his hands and knees, wincing in pain as well.

"Oi, calm down! No need for all that!" A familiar voice shouted from behind Harry as he looked up to get his bearings and realized that it was a Weasley twin he'd just flipped off of him.

"What's going on?" Harry demanded as he spun around, hand over Najash to keep the serpent calm, to see the other twin carefully floating the sandwiches he had grabbed back onto the plate.

"Ugggh, sorry to startle you, Harrikins." The twin on the ground moaned piteously as he held the back of his head in pain.

"We just wanted to talk to you Harrikins." The other one said at the same time as he put down the plate.

"You could have just asked, you know." Harry said as he tried to get his breathing under control, "What do you need that required you to scare me half to death?"

The twin he'd thrown, who had made it back to his feet, albeit unsteadily, smiled a lopsided grin as he held up a blank sheet of parchment, "We are on a mission of grave import. Given to us by the legendary Mister Moony."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the grandstanding but let them continue.

"Yes," the other picked up seamlessly, "Harry, we were tasked by the illustrious Mister Moony with bestowing upon you your inheritance."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, in the back of his mind he had been sure they were going to ask him about werewolves or something since they kept using Mister Lupin's nickname.

The twins shared a look before setting two blank parchments on a desk in the room. The first, upon being touched by both their wands, filled in with words in Mister Lupin's handwriting and was pushed towards Harry.

_"Harry, I've enchanted this parchment to read differently when different keys are used on it. The Weasley twins are in possession of something which the three of us feel should belong to you now. It was made by your father and myself, as well as Peter and… Black. When you see what it is, you will understand why I didn't send this message in a way your aunt could potentially read it. The twins will make sure that you know how to use it. Take care of it, Harry, but have fun with it. Just… don't tell your aunt about it. She might not see the humour._

_Mister Moony"_

Harry frowned as he finished reading the note, what could his dad have made that he shouldn't tell his aunt about?

"This, Harrykins," The first twin said as he massaged the goose-egg forming on the back of his head, "is the secret to our success."

"The magic behind our mischief." His brother added while sliding the other, still blank, parchment towards Harry..

"Not to mention, almost literally the keys to this very castle." The first concluded.

"We give you," the other said.

"The Marauder's Map!" They said together with enough force to make Harry jump in his seat.

Harry looked down at the blank parchment in puzzlement, "Uh, what?"

The twins chuckled as they pointed their wands at the paper and said a phrase that Harry would grow to love, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Just like the letter, ink began flowing across the overlarge parchment. But unlike the letter, this ink did not form only words. Across the top, in flowing script appeared a title and introduction, _"Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs present 'The Marauder's Map.'" _Harry watched as the ink continued filling in a complete map of the entire school, every floor and even the grounds outside.

Then the map populated itself with hundreds of sets of footprints, each marked with a nametag. Harry was confused for a moment until he saw three names sitting in an out-of-the-way classroom. Three names he recognized: Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and _Harry Potter_.

"No way…" Harry's voice failed him as he realized how amazing the map in front of him really was, "Is this accurate? Everyone and everywhere?"

"Yes, yes, and yes." The twins ping-ponged. They gestured for Harry to look at the letter, which had new content on it now that the map had been opened in its presence, but he was too busy studying the map for one name in particular.

Harry sighed in relief when he found Hermione's name in the girls dorm in Gryffindor Tower. She wasn't alone, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were both there too, and the closeness of their names on the map made Harry suspect they might all be sitting on one bed.

"At least she's not alone." Harry said as he put the map down and looked at the now-longer letter from Mister Lupin.

"Checking on your girlfriend?" One of the Weasleys asked playfully.

"Nothing like that," Harry said as he grabbed the letter again, "Snape was really bad to Hermione in potions today after she had to partner with your brother, I was taking some sandwiches up to her so she didn't miss lunch. She shouldn't be alone when she's upset like this."

The twins smirked at each other while Harry's attention was elsewhere, "That does sound like Snape. Want us to prank the greasy git for her?"

"Best not." Harry replied without looking up, "Knowing Hermione, if she found out she'd get mad at you. Even if it was _for _her."

Harry went back to reading the rest of the letter from his dad's friend:

_"As you can see on the map, I was not the only one with a nickname. Our little group never did things by half. Each of the others earned their names while they were in school, a story I would rather share in person; and among them your father was 'Prongs,' the de facto leader of the Marauders. In honour of his memory I bestow upon you the name 'Prongslet', until you earn your own Marauder name. I'm certainly not giving you permission to cause trouble in the school with this Harry, but keeping everyone's spirits up with some harmless laughs was something your father excelled at. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. When we see each other this Christmas I hope to be able to trade some stories."_

"O great Prongslet, Son of Prongs, obviously the map is yours mate." A twin began once Harry had finished reading the letter, "But do you think we could borrow it sometimes, if we needed it for a prank?"

Harry looked up at the two redheads in front of him before grinning, "Only if you promise not to target Dudley, Neville, Hermione, or me with anything, then we have a deal."

"Deal." The twins said in unison before glancing at each other.

"Uh, we've heard a rumor Harry." One started.

"That you have a snake? Supposedly its red and gold too." The other asked. Harry nodded cautiously.

"You should show people, trust us." The first twin said, "Rumors are going around, but if you show people then it shouldn't be as big a deal. People are speculating that you're a dark wizard or a parselmouth or something and trying to hide it."

"Yeah…" Harry answered shakily, putting his hand back over Najash instinctively.

"Is that it?" A twin asked, nodding at Harry's arm.

"Yeah," Harry replied, "He stays wrapped around my arm when I'm in class. Back home he liked to ride on my shoulders."

"Can we see him?" Was the next question. Harry didn't see a problem, so he coaxed Najash into peeking his head out, without Speaking to him.

"Wicked!" The twins said in unison as they examined the Gryffindor coloured snake.

Two handshakes later, the twins left Harry with the secret code to blank the map, 'Mischief Managed,' and a warning that he needed to hurry if he and Hermione were going to eat before lunch was over. At first, Harry planned to tell Hermione about the map, but as he thought about it on his ascent to the Tower he decided not to. There was something he needed to try with it first, possibly even that very night.

The third floor corridor was clearly marked on the map; and with it there was no chance that Harry would be caught out-of-bounds, even the ghosts and Peeves the Poltergeist showed up on it.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"And just where have you two been at this late hour?" The Portrait of the Fat Lady asked Harry and Neville as they skidded to a stop in front of her, breathless.

"Caput Draconis!" Harry said in lieu of answering her, triggering her frame to swing open and reveal the passage to the Gryffindor Common room. As soon as the two boys were inside the common room they pulled the door shut behind them and collapsed against the wall of the five foot long passage.

About an hour previous, Harry had attempted to sneak out of the boys dorm only to accidentally wake up Neville. After explaining the Marauders Map to him, and what he hoped to find, Neville agreed to go with Harry to check out the third floor corridor. Dodging Filch and Peeves was simple with it, and they had no problem making their way around until Harry realized there was a name stalking them that they hadn't accounted for. Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, chased the two down a few corridors, forcing them to detour several times, before they evaded her and got back on track. Harry hadn't even thought to check the map for animals; but sure enough he saw a few of them appeared, distinguishable by the shape of their footprints. Based on where they were Harry assumed that the map was designed to track the pets of staff members, but not students.

When they made it to the third floor again it was off a moving staircase that began to slide away right after they got to the end of it. Seeing their way back move away steeled their resolve to at least check out the corridor. In the middle of the hallway was a door, pulling on it by hand revealed it to be locked, so Harry pointed his wand at it and cast Alohomora.

"You've got to be kidding." Harry whispered after the locked door _clicked_ open, "They didn't even put an anti-unlocking charm on it!"

"What if this is just some kind of test to catch rule-breakers and we're about to be expelled?" Neville asked as Harry went to open the now-unlocked door, "This seems too easy if the headmaster is really hiding the philosopher's stone here."

"At the very least there no one in there, Neville." Harry replied, holding up his father's map to emphasize the point before blanking it, "Let's check and see if there's anything more than a locked door here, since we've already made it this far."

Neville held his breath and followed as Harry pushed the door open and went inside. There was no light in the room, so Harry raised his wand and lit it with a 'Lumos.'

That was a mistake.

In front of the boys a gigantic dog, perhaps fifteen feet at the shoulder, began to slowly rouse to wakefulness. All _three heads _of it. As it blinked its many eyes the beast locked onto Harry and Neville and began to growl menacingly. As it rose Harry heard an odd sound, like a door being jostled, and chanced a look at the beast's feet as he and Neville began slowly backing up. The moment the dog released a trio of angry barks the boys turned and bolted back through the still-open door, slamming it shut with a second audible _click_ as it locked behind them. Neither stopped to think about that as they began running for Gryffindor Tower, terrified that the great dog was going to crash through the stone wall and chase them. They didn't slow down until they had made it through the portrait of the Fat Lady.

After thirty seconds to catch their breath, Harry and Neville rose and continued into the common room, both wanting sleep but confident their dreams would be filled with visions of teeth and the sound of growling. Instead, what they heard from the common room as they entered stopped them in their tracks.

"Just _where_ have you two been?" Hermione's voice came from the couch in front of the fire. She stood up and turned around to glare at them, a much more terrifying sight than fuzzy pink pajamas should have allowed, "It's nearly one in the morning! What if you had been caught?"

Hermione was prepared to lay into them for their carelessness, but stopped when she took in the haunted look on her friends' faces, "Is everything alright?" She asked.

Instead of immediately answering, Harry hurried forward and grabbed Hermione in a hug. She could feel his heart still racing as she returned the hug, just as she could feel the tension in him leave as he started to calm down in her embrace. Neville sat down on the couch beside where she had been as he tried to pull himself together, and Hermione guided Harry down onto the couch as well.

"I'm so sorry Hermione." Harry said once he'd found his voice again, "I'll never break a promise to you again."

"What do you mean? Harry? What happened?" She was starting to truly worry, something had shaken Harry badly.

"It was a cerberus. How did they even get it in there?" Neville asked blankly, his gaze still fixed on the fire.

"What? Harry? Neville? Are you two alright?" Hermione was starting to panic as well.

"We checked out the third floor corridor." Harry confessed, his voice barely above a whisper. Hermione gasped in shock before hugging Harry again, "There was a giant dog in there," Harry continued, "with three heads, standing on a trap door or something."

"Cerberus are used to guard things," Neville added, "but not here in England. They're native to places like Greece!"

"You aren't about to tell me that Daleks are real too are you?" Harry asked Neville, trying to bring himself back to reality.

"What's a Dalek?" Neville asked, his head jerking to face Harry.

"Oh thank God." Harry sighed, causing Hermione to chuckle a bit in an attempt to relieve her own pent up tension.

"Why don't you tell me about it," Hermione offered, "Harry? Neville? That might make you feel a little better."

Over five minutes, the two boys recounted what had happened. By the end Neville had calmed down; but when they got back to the part about Fluffy, Harry turned pale all over again.

"You aren't getting a phobia of dogs, are you Harry?" Hermione asked when she realized how much worse off he was than Neville.

"There must have been some kind of ward to keep sound in the room," Harry started, "cause I stopped hearing the barking as soon as the door closed. But that meant I could hear it! The door _locked behind us_, if Neville hadn't held it so long or if I had waited longer to light my wand it would have closed with us _inside_!"

Neville immediately turned green and ran up the stairs for the nearest bathroom.

"Harry… It's alright," Hermione rubbed his back as she spoke, "I'm sure the thing was chained to the floor or something since you said it was guarding a trap door."

"Yeah… Yeah you're probably right." Harry relaxed a little again.

"But we should still say something to Professor Mcgonagall." Hermione continued, "At least suggest to her that the door needs some way to keep students out. How can the only thing between us and a cerberus be a door locked the _muggle_ way."

"I agree." Harry said, "But when we go to her, let's not mention Neville. Okay?"

Hermione frowned but nodded, "Okay Harry."

"Not that I'm not _so_ glad you were, Hermione," Harry said, "but why are you down here so late?"

She glanced at the table in front of them, where the letter she was writing was lying face-down, "I was writing your aunt about Professor Snape and… some other things that Parvati and Lavender told me about this afternoon. Thank you for the sandwiches by the way." Harry smiled at her and she continued, "Do you want to add something to it?"

Harry actually chuckled at that, "No way, if my aunt found out she'd have me taken off the Quidditch team before I've ever even flown my new broom."

Hermione sighed in relief, if Harry could joke like that then he'd probably be alright, "Then let's get to bed. Your practise is supposed to start at seven tomorrow morning. We can talk to Professor Mcgonagall tomorrow after the new introduction to magic seminar."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Professor Mcgonagall was absolutely furious when Harry and Hermione approached her the next morning, though the friends were rather surprised when Harry was let off with just a single detention. She explained that she had been assured by the headmaster that there would be spells on that corridor to discourage students from trying to get in; _and _that the door itself wouldn't open for any student for any reason.

His later explanation that Hagrid couldn't be keyed to the wards like staff, but still needed to be able to get in to take care of Fluffy the Cerberus left her ready to hex him into next week. In the end, she got the headmaster to agree to a locking ward keyed to the groundskeeper's umbrella.


	14. Chapter 13: Birthdays and Bullies

**AN: Sorry this chapter is a little late today. My parents are on vacation this week, so my normally free mornings have been taken up by driving by to check on their pets. Also, I forgot to mention it last chapter, but thanks for all the positive feedback so far on the story, which hit 1000 followers last week. Thanks a lot guys!**

Birthdays and Bullies

Hermione Granger had been depressed all day. When she had gone downstairs to say 'good morning' to Harry all he'd said back was the same. During breakfast she had hoped that maybe an owl would deliver something for her, but Hedwig was absent. Worst of all was that today, of all days, she had to go to flying class without Harry there. She still didn't feel safe on a broom, but after watching Harry fly she was a little more confident as long as he was nearby. He had promised to catch her if she fell. Sadly, Quidditch players were apparently exempt from flying class, and the team had wanted to work on strategy during that time this week.

Normally none of this would bother Hermione too much, except the flying. But today was her birthday, and it seemed that her best friend had completely forgotten! She sighed as she headed towards the Great Hall with Parvati Patil for dinner. Harry had left their last class early, confident (and rightly so) that the ghostly teacher wouldn't even notice, and she hadn't seen him since.

"Parvati, where are we going?" Hermione asked as she was pulled past the double doors to the Great Hall and down a flight of stairs on the other end of the corridor, "Aren't the Hufflepuff dorms down here?"

Parvati just smiled mysteriously and led Hermione around a corner to a painting of a gigantic bowl of fruit. She stopped for a minute, frowning as she fiddled with the fruit in the bowl before a green pear giggled at being touched and expanded into the third dimension, turning into a door handle of sorts.

"Parvati? What's going on? Where does that go?" Hermione had never seen this door before. How did Parvati even know where it was? It's not like people randomly went around touching the paintings looking for secret passages, though obviously that should go on her to-do list.

She was even more mystified when Parvati opened the painting-that-was-a-door and revealed a huge kitchen filled with tiny little gremlin-creatures scurrying back and forth. She followed her friend into the kitchen to find a table set up off to the side. Harry was walking over to them with…

"Parvati?" Hermione shrieked as she jumped away from the girl beside her, "What's going on?"

'Parvati' laughed beside her as she gestured at her robes with her wand and changed them from Gryffindor to Ravenclaw colours, _Padma_, "Sorry to startle you, but my sister couldn't have kept quiet on the way here. We switched just before History."

The real Parvati stuck her tongue out at the two as Harry made it to them and gave Hermione a big hug.

"Surprise! Happy Birthday Hermione." He said as they walked over to the table, where Dudley, Neville, and Justin were waiting as well. Now that she wasn't freaked out about doppelgangers, Hermione had time to take in the party decorations and streamers hung up around this corner of the kitchen.

"Harry, are these House Elves?" Hermione asked as they walked, remembering Harry mentioning them after his meeting with the headmaster. She could see now that there was a birthday cake with twelve candles on it surrounded by platters of lighter food than they normally had up in the Great Hall set up on the table, "There's so many of them!"

"Yeah, apparently they know when people call their names. The headmaster called the Head Elf when I met with him in his office during the first weekend. I came down here a week ago right after Quidditch practice and called him to ask whether we could have a private party." Harry laughed as he recalled, "I had to get them to tone it down though, when they first said yes they were talking like it was going to be as overdone as the welcome feast."

"Happy Birthday Hermione!" Dudley, Neville, and Justin said in unison as they made it to the group.

While she thanked them Hermione noted that there was a small pile of gifts on the table as well, one of them was clearly labelled in her parents' handwriting even, causing her to raise an eyebrow questioningly.

"We asked everyone to send your presents to Professor Mcgonagall." Dudley explained, knowing Hermione's next question would be whether all this was allowed, "She knows we're down here, and sent the presents with one of the elves a few minutes ago."

After everyone had sat back down at the table they ate relatively quickly so that they could move onto the delicious looking birthday cake, and presents after. Once Dudley had finished his second helping the group began singing 'Happy Birthday' to Hermione, causing her to tear up and almost fail to blow all twelve candles out in one breath.

"Are you okay Hermione?" Parvati, the real one, asked when she noticed the tears in her friend's eyes.

Hermione sniffled as she dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief offered by Justin, "I'm okay. I'm just so happy… I… I didn't have any friends before I met Harry and Dudley. When I was growing up I never had a birthday party with friends, just my parents and sometimes an aunt or uncle. When I found out I was a witch my biggest hope was that I could make friends here."

Hermione got up at this point and went around the table, giving each of her friends a hug and thanking them for being there. When she finished with Harry, he stood to embrace her and smiled.

"Did you think we wouldn't do something for you just because we're at school?" He asked her as they sat back down.

Hermione looked down in shame and mumbled an answer that no one could hear.

"Huh?" Dudley said, straining to hear.

"Ithoughtyouguyswouldfindnewfriends!" Hermione gasped and slowed down, "I thought that we wouldn't hang out as much anymore once you had other magical people you could be around instead of me." She added emphatically, before curling up in shame again, Harry scooted his chair over and wrapped an arm around her.

"You're my best friend, Hermione. Not _just _the first magical person I met." He said, his voice seeming to fill the area with calm, "Of course we'll still hang out, and of course we're gonna celebrate your birthday."

Hermione smiled at her best friend, then jumped slightly when a slice of the cake _popped_ onto a plate directly in front of her without warning.

"Looks like the elves think you should cheer up." Harry said, laughing, "It IS your birthday, after all."

Hermione smiled back at Harry before joining him in laughing. The passing elves popped slices of cake in front of everyone and they dug in. Harry gave Dudley 'the look' when he asked for a third slice and the Hufflepuff sheepishly moved it over to Justin when it materialized in front of him. Justin just laughed and ate the slice, no point in wasting it.

"Which do you want to open first?" Parvati said, gesturing at the presents once the elves has popped all the dishes away.

Hermoine looked at the pile on the end of the table, there were six in total, she noted. Her parents' was closest, so she decided to pick it up first. She carefully pulled the tape off of the paper and removed the box without ripping anything, smirking at Dudley the whole time. Hermione remembered how he tore through his presents at his own birthday and kept rushing Harry through his presents at his, but she wanted to savor this.

Hermione wasn't sure what she was looking at when she opened the box until she picked it up, immediately dropping it back into the box and emitting a squeak of embarrassment.

"What was that?" Neville asked.

"It's exercise clothes," Hermione said, blushing, "my mum said in her last letter that she wanted me to start running with Dudley at least twice a week."

"Aunt Petunia told me the same thing." Harry confided. "She didn't think the stairs were enough."

"Yes, but does she want you to wear _this_?" Hermione asked, picking up a pink pair of shorts to show him. She sighed in relief as she did, noticing a few pairs of longer gym pants as well, mostly in pink and light blue.

"Well… no." Harry said, barely containing his laughter.

"Do muggles really wear things like that?" Parvati asked as she inspected the tiny garment in Hermione's hands with interest.

"Normally only when they plan on running or working out, and usually not outside." Dudley answered for her, "It's already getting too cold to not wear sleeves and pants outside, so it's a good thing they sent longer stuff too. I'm hoping we find a room we can use when winter hits. Though we wouldn't really be able to run then, just sit-ups and jumping-jacks and stuff."

Hermione went to put the clothes back in the box, secretly a little disappointed in her parents' gift, _why_ would they embarrass her like that if they knew that she would be opening it among her friends? Then her hand bumped against something hard at the bottom of the box that she hadn't noticed at first. She reached under the clothes and found a book carefully taped to the bottom.

"Oh my gosh!" Hermione squealed as she held it up, the embarrassing clothes completely forgotten for the moment, "How could I forget this came out last week?"

It was a mystery novel, a new one in a series that Hermione particularly liked. Mysteries and Crime novels were her favorite fiction stories even after learning she was a witch. Once she had read the back cover, Harry handed her the first two in the series from where he'd hidden them in his bag. She squealed all over again and hugged Harry tight, she was now looking forward to rereading the series before getting to the new one.

"I've never read muggle fiction before." Padma said as she looked at the back of the first book in the series, "After you re-read them can I take a look?"

"Of course!" Hermione said as she picked up the gift from Justin, opening it to reveal a new set of quills, as well as several reams of parchment, "Oh thank you Justin! I broke so many quills trying to get the hang of it. I've been thankful for those seminars."

"Yeah," Justin said with a chuckle, "I remember you getting frustrated over it when we were doing homework in the library. Plus, Harry mentioned that you tend to overwrite for essays, so I figured you'd be needing more parchment."

Hermione stuck her tongue out at him good naturedly as she set the box aside and went to pick up the gifts from Neville and the Patil sisters. Both were clearly books even without touching them, Hermione knew these kinds of things, and that meant she couldn't decide which one to open first. Dudley recognized her dilemma and came to her aid with a coin, one flip later Hermione used her nails to cut the tape on Padma and Parvati's gift and slide it out of the wrapping.

"Thank you Parvati! Padma!" Hermione hugged each in turn before showing the others the book they'd gotten her, _Magical Histories of India: An Overview._

"It's the kind that has English on one side and Sanskrit on the other." Padma explained, "That way, if you want, you can learn a little of the language in addition to the history."

"That's perfect." Hermione said as she cracked the book open to take a quick look.

"Finish opening the others before you start reading or you won't get done tonight." Harry chided her.

Hermione grinned at Harry as she opened Neville's gift, which turned out to be _Five Hundred Tips for a Healthy Greenhouse_.

"I asked Harry before I got it, to make sure you would actually be able to use it. Since you and Harry like herbology and potions." Neville said when Hermione didn't look quite sure about the book.

"Huh? But we don't have a greenhouse? And neither of our yards are big enough." The birthday girl looked at Harry in confusion.

"Mister Lupin has someone cleaning up the Potter properties for us." He explained, "There's a room for greenhouse at one, and I asked if we could get started this Christmas getting one up and running. We can stock it with plants we'll be using for the next couple years here at Hogwarts and get some extra practical work in."

"Oh Harry! That will be wonderful!" Hermione hugged him yet again before hugging Neville as well, "Would you come by when we do that to make sure we get everything right?"

"Sure, if my Gran will let me." Neville answered.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Dudley declared, handing Hermione the gift he'd gotten her, "I know you wanna save Harry's for last, so here you go." He added with a laugh.

Hermione decided to have mercy on Dudley for the one present, and opened it quickly. But she still avoided ripping the paper or making a mess. She'd already noticed that the house elves were making the trash paper disappear once it was dropped and she didn't want to make their work any harder by shredding the paper first. Opening the box, her eyes fell upon a plain looking stethoscope, but when she examined the chestpiece she found a lot of small, runic symbols that she didn't recognize carved into both the metal handle, as well as the bell.

"I didn't know what to get you after Harry told me what he and mum got," Harry elbowed him, not unpainfully, "and I didn't want to just have my name stuck to the bottom of his gift, so I tried to figure out something cool. I asked a sixth year in Ravenclaw to make some modifications to this last week."

Dudley picked up the stethoscope to show her, "It has some magic marks on it that make the sound better than normal. Like having a speaker in someone's chest." He smirked, "They also work on the air. If you point it at someone you can hear what they're saying if they aren't too far away. It works for about a hundred feet, but any magic in the way interrupts it, according to Professor Flitwick. I asked him to make sure it would work right since a student made it."

"That's really neat Dudley." Hermione said as she accepted the device back from him, "I never really thought of using magic to just _improve_ non magical devices like that."

"You have to be sorta careful when you do that." Neville added, "If you take a muggle artefact and enchant it then it's not supposed to do anything it couldn't do before. Just in case it falls into muggle hands."

"That makes sense." Harry agreed, "Magic would get out pretty quick if someone enchanted a car to fly or something."

Finally Hermione picked up the one from Harry, which he explained was also from his aunt and uncle. It was light and squishy, like Mrs. Dursley had wrapped a bag instead of a box.

"Oh it's pretty!" She exclaimed as she unwrapped the gift, once again being careful to make Dudley wait. He was laughing about it this time. The gift _was_ a bag. A bright red book bag with her name in gold letters with black borders all around. Attached to the bag was a little note signed from the Dursleys and Harry, 'Happy Birthday Hermione, enjoy your own mini-TARDIS.'

Hermione peeked inside the bag once she'd opened it and gasped in shock, "It's actually bigger on the inside! There looks like four bags of space in here!"

Neville and the Patils weren't sure why the muggle raised were so interested in that, space expansion charms may be too advanced for _them_, but it wasn't really that hard to find one in Diagon Alley was it? Though the Gryffindor, or possibly Najash, colours _were_ very nice.

"It's from a Television show," Dudley explained after Padma had asked what 'TARDIS' meant, "The Doctor is a time traveller from another planet that travels around in a ship as big as a world on the inside, but it's just a phone booth on the outside. The ship is called the TARDIS."

Meanwhile, Harry was explaining to Hermione that her bag actually continued to expand quite a bit more based on how much she put in it. But she would need to be careful about it since there was no organization charm, too many books would mean she couldn't find what she was looking for.

"Will you bee's needing anything else Mister Harry Potter Sir?" an elf asked after Hermione had moved all her books into her new bag.

"No, thank you guys, the food was brilliant. The cake too." Harry said, "Right Hermione?"

"Oh yes!" Hermione gushed, "Thank you, this has been my best birthday ever. Is there any way I could thank you, anything I could get you or something?"

The elves all looked at her strangely, "Elves not be needing pay," The closest elf to her said, "We's love to serve, Missy Hermy-Owny!"

Hermione's mouth dropped open for a few seconds before her mind caught up with her, "Do you mean you're not paid? At all?"

"Of course not," Neville said from across the table, "they're house elves."

"BUT THAT'S SL-" Hermione started to yell, scaring the elves into retreating several feet, before Harry put his hand over her mouth.

"Hermione, calm down." Harry said, she looked at him like he'd betrayed her, "I didn't know about that before I asked them to do all this. But really, if Neville is that calm about it there has to be something more than _just_ slavery." He glanced over at Neville, begging him to provide context.

"Elves don't just _like _work, they_ need_ it." Neville said, drawing blank stares from his muggle raised friends, "I mean. They bond to a wizard, or to a place like Hogwarts, and get magic in exchange for work. I'm not sure on all the specifics and all, but I remember that Hogwarts has more house elves than anywhere on earth."

"That still just sounds like slavery." Hermione pouted.

"Let's learn a little more before we go on a crusade, okay?" Harry asked, "We still have some time, what do you want to do for the rest of your birthday? _Besides_ reading your books."

The friends spent another hour sitting and talking, even trying out a magical card game that Neville had brought called 'Exploding Snap' before Professor Mcgonagall entered the kitchens and told them that they needed to head back to their dorms. As they were splitting up in the hall, Dudley pulled Harry and Hermione aside.

"You guys have potions with Slytherin tomorrow, right?" He asked the two.

"Yeah, whats up?" Harry answered.

"You remember Ron? Weasley?" Harry nodded, barely concealing his grimace from his cousin, "I know you don't like him that much, but I talked to him alone a couple days ago and-"

"How?" Harry interrupted, "He stays glued to Malfoy."

Dudley grinned, "Funny story, Malfoy and his two henchmen run away whenever my wand sparks at them. Which it does pretty easily. So I just walked up and said I wanted to talk to Ron and all three of them sorta left him."

"You're going to get in trouble that way Dudley!" Hermione admonished him.

"Yeah yeah," Dudley waved her off, "do you remember earlier this week when all the Slytherin's hair turned green? No one can prove it, but he thinks the twins did that. Anyways, he was stuck with green hair for two days because no one would help him get rid of it, not even in his own house."

"Dudley, I'm sorry, but he doesn't like us. Particularly me!" Hermione said.

"Actually he doesn't have a problem with you, I asked." Dudley returned, "Malfoy and a couple older Slytherins sort of run that house. According to Ron, they wouldn't even be civil to him if he was nice to you. They at least acknowledge he's there in class, he says he may as well be invisible otherwise. And no one else is willing to be friends with him because apparently his family is 'supposed' to be Gryffindors. Sorting Hat or not."

"What do you actually want me to do then?" Harry asked.

"Just try and give him a second chance?" Dudley offered, "He likes Quidditch, you could relate over that." Harry didn't look convinced, "He looks _really_ depressed. He doesn't like being around Malfoy, he just doesn't have a choice, and he says when he went to his brothers they told him off for being a Slytherin. He just doesn't seem to have any friends, and I was hoping we could change that."

Harry frowned for a moment. Growing up, Dudley was always really good at knowing when someone was actually just rough around the edges and when they were really jerks, "Okay," Harry conceded, "I'll pair up with him in potions tomorrow, Neville's getting to where he can prepare ingredients without too much coaching now."

"You really think so?" The boy in question asked from down the hall, they'd spent a few hours over the week practicing but he hadn't felt he'd improved that much.

"You just need to learn to calm down when Snape is hovering over you and you'll be fine." Harry said to Neville before turning back to Dudley, "I'll talk to him then. But if he insults Hermione or my parents or something like that again, that'll be it."

"Cool, thanks Harry."

"Professor Snape, Harry." Hermione added as correction, causing Harry and Dudley to chuckle.

"Alright." Professor Mcgonagall said as she emerged from the kitchens, "I think I told you to get to bed. Curfew is not for ten minutes, so I see no reason to give you passes."

Seven students scurried for their dorms.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"You're sitting over here today, Weasley." Harry said to the redhead to stop him from continuing on to sit by Seamus, who had originally volunteered to partner with Ron after what happened with Hermione last week.

"Uh, okay Potter." Weasley said after a moment's hesitation as he moved over to Harry's workstation and sat down, only then noticing that Neville was working with Hermione this time.

As he sat down, Najash slithered out from Harry's sleeve and onto the desk. The Slytherin blanched and leaned away as the serpent coiled up and rested on the corner of the desk farthest from the burner and began staring at him.

_Good thing I left Scabbers in his cage today_, Ron thought to himself as he eyed the snake warily. Potter had begun openly carrying his snake around with him since last weekend; supposedly there was a riot in the Gryffindor common room when it happened, and Potter was the school pariah for a day instead of Ron. But somehow after the first day most of the Lions were completely fine with the snake and Ron highly doubted that it was just the colour. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff followed Gryffindor in calming down just as quickly.

"I thought you didn't like me?" Ron asked as he broke his staring contest with the snake, "What made you change your mind?"

"I haven't yet," Harry answered honestly as he finished wiping out the inside of their cauldron and placed it beside the unlit fire, "but my cousin thinks you aren't as bad as Hermione and I do." Harry looked over at Weasley, "I usually trust him on things like that, I'm not always the best at telling if someone's an alright bloke."

"Right scary, your cousin is, Malfoy won't tell me why he doesn't wanna be around him," Ron answered before lowering his voice so as not to be heard by his housemates, "do you know? It's like he's scared your cousin will attack him or something."

Harry carefully considered whether he should answer, obviously Malfoy hadn't spread the story of what happened on the Hogwarts Express so telling Weasley would be giving him ammo. But between Malfoy and Weasley it was no contest, Malfoy was the person Harry disliked most in Hogwarts. Giving Weasley something to hold over him could keep the blond ponce off their backs for a while.

"Malfoy invaded our train cart on the Express just like you did," Harry explained with an even voice, though still making it clear that he continued to resent Weasley's actions and words that day, "but he was more aggressive about it and had his yes-men with him. When he started calling Hermione and Neville names, Dudley threw a thunderclap at him to run them off."

"Draco Malfoy is afraid of loud noises?" Ron asked incredulously.

Harry raised an eyebrow at Weasley, "_Real_ thunder has a source, Dudley coated his wand in lightning to make it do that." Not entirely true, as none of it was actually intentional. But close enough, and it sounded more threatening than reality anyways.

Ron's mouth dropped open for a moment before he collected himself, "That's awesome, no wonder. But how did he learn that kind of magic, being a m-"

Wealsey froze mid-sentence as Harry fixed him with an icy glare, he could _swear_ that the snake's eyes squinted into a glare as well to mimic his owner.

"Weasley," Harry said, his voice low to prevent anyone not immediately nearby from hearing, "I told Dudley I'd give you exactly one more chance. If you talk that blood-crap about Hermione, or Dudley, that's it."

Ron glanced over to the Slytherin side of the room, where Malfoy and Nott were watching him intently, before speaking even _lower_ and making it hard for even Potter to hear him, "I'm really sorry, I'm not like that. I swear! I didn't mean anything by that, I was only gonna say 'muggleborn.' It's just that elemental magic is supposedly really hard to learn. Like, impossible without a teacher, and you guys all made it clear you didn't have any tutors before school."

Harry frowned, "We'll see, but first let's get through class. For starters, you aren't going to argue with me about instructions while we brew today. We are going to do it _right_, which means weighing everything, and preparing ingredients the way we are supposed to."

"I'll try." Ron replied, "Maybe I'll actually learn something in this class if you're teaching me."

"You could have learned from Hermione if you'd listened." Harry muttered as Professor Snape entered the classroom and began the day's brewing, you couldn't really call it 'instruction' or 'teaching'.

It didn't take long for Harry to figure out why Weasley's potions were grades were abysmal, he only seemed to read the first few words of each step in the instructions and then assume he got it all from that. Several times Harry was forced to stop him and make him reweigh or reprepare things where the red headed boy just didn't seem to put forth any effort at all. At least Snape had left Harry alone ever since Hermione had sent his aunt a letter about the potions teacher last week. He wasn't sure what Aunt Petunia had said in her letter back, but Hedwig had delivered it directly into the hands of Professor Mcgonagall only one day later and Snape had seemed to actively avoid all three of them all week since, even in class according to Dudley.

The potion they were preparing today was a skin-fortifying potion that utilized, among other things, a small amount of bark from a Wiggentree, this was the last ingredient required before leaving the potion to sit for exactly twenty-four minutes and twenty-four seconds. Unfortunately, twice now Harry had been forced to explain to Weasley why _crushing_ was not 'just the same' as _grinding _and that it didn't matter if one of them was easier to do, one of them was the _right_ way. Harry was getting ready to just take the bowl with the bark in it when Weasley finally relented and began grinding it like he was supposed to be doing. As he worked, Weasley discreetly nodded his head towards the Slytherin side.

When Harry glanced that way, he saw Malfoy and Nott quickly look away, but he was sure that they were in the process of nodding back to Weasley. Or was that his imagination? Regardless, it was clear favoritism that those two almost never had to actually _do_ any of the difficult parts, since Crabbe and Goyle weighed and prepared all their ingredients for them.

Harry set the timer as soon as he had finished stirring in the Wiggentree bark and leaned back in his chair to stretch. It had been rather tense brewing with Weasley, he didn't check anything so Harry was constantly ready to stop him from just dumping something into the cauldron while Harry was doing something else.

"Sorry about earlier. Being difficult I mean." Ron muttered under his breath after a few minutes of silence, causing Harry to look up at him from where he'd been reading ahead in their textbook, "I saw they were watching. Slytherin is _supposed_ to hate you."

Harry nodded stiffly and almost missed the look of shock on Weasley's face as he returned to his book, which caused him to glance back up and around in time to see a chunk of Valerian Root flying across the room towards their cauldron.

_Three for three_, Harry thought to himself. He didn't think he had time to try and catch the root since he was reclined in his seat and angled away from it so instead he reached for Najash, who quickly wrapped around his hand, while at the same time he kicked out at Weasley's chair, pushing the boy into the aisle and pitching himself over backwards. The root landed in their cauldron just as Harry hit the floor and caused the potion to violently erupt over the space they had been occupying mere seconds before.

"Potter!" Snape shouted from where he had been hovering over Parvati and Lavender's still unfinished potion, "What do you think you are doing? I should have known your success before was just luck. Ten points from Gryffindor."

"Professor, it wasn't Potter." Ron said from the floor, still in shock over how fast Potter had responded to the danger.

"There is no need to take responsibility for his failures Weasley, Potter is just a student like everyone else." Came Snape's gruff reply.

"But it was Malfoy, sir. He threw something in the cauldron." Ron pressed.

The room was deathly silent, save for the bubbling of cauldrons in the room, as Snape turned his glare upon Ron Weasley, "Surely I misheard you," he hissed, "Mister Malfoy, a member of your _own house_, is fifteen feet away. How was he responsible for this?"

"I told you, sir." Ron answered, his voice shaking as his Head of House glared down at him, "Malfoy threw something in our cauldron. I froze up when I saw it, if Potter hadn't pushed me over then that potion would have blew up on me."

"You're welcome, Weasley." Harry said from the floor where he was carefully cleaning his robes where a little of the spilled potion had gotten on him. Weasley shuddered when he noticed that Najash was currently wrapped around Harry's _neck_ to avoid interfering with his arms or hands.

Snape sneered at the pair before looking over at the Slytherin side of the room, "Mister Nott. Did you see Malfoy throw something, as Weasley suggests?"

"No sir." The Slytherin responded before smirking at the two students still on the ground.

"Mister Weasley," Snape continued, looking back at the redhead, "detention with me tonight. Making up stories to try and get your housemates in trouble is not how you get ahead in Slytherin."

"But sir!" Hermione objected.

"Five points from Gryffindor, Granger," He interrupted, "I did not _ask_ you. Potter, Weasley, that will be a zero for the day. Clean this mess up and get out."

Harry and Ron cleaned up their station in silence and left together as soon as they were done. As much as she wanted to, Hermione didn't have it in her to just walk out of the class behind them.

"Sorry about that." Ron said once they were out of sight of the potions lab, "When I saw him throw that I just froze up. You definitely saved me a trip to the hospital wing though, thanks Potter."

"No problem, I don't like seeing people get hurt." Harry answered, "But if a brick fell and hit Malfoy on the head, I might laugh a bit before making sure he's alive."

Ron wasn't sure what to make of that, but a new realization hit him as they passed the corridor that led to the Slytherin dorms, "I'm gonna be in for it tonight when I try to tuck in. Five knuts says I can't even get out of bed in the morning after all the hexing Malfoy and the others will do to me."

"Is it really that bad?" Harry asked.

"My family is _all_ Gryffindor." Ron responded, "You remember that howler my mum sent me?" Potter nodded, "That's the only thing I've gotten from home. A lot of my quills and parchment went missing the first week, but when I wrote home asking for help my mum sent back the letters unopened. _That's_ how bad it is that I'm a Slytherin. I'm surprised Percy hasn't demanded my rat Scabbers back, he was originally Percy's. But so far he's been the only one that'll talk to me, and he still looks down at me for this." He pulled on his green tie as he finished ranting, "But he did help me get more writing supplies.

Harry was stunned, Weasley's own family was ignoring him? Over something as silly as what house he got sorted into in school? At least Percy seemed to be able to look past it mostly.

"Well that's just ridiculous," Harry stated, "your school house doesn't mean anything."

"Try telling my mum that." Ron deadpanned. "She can be a right terror when things aren't how she wants them. It never really bothered me much until _I _was the thing out-of-place. It was always the twins she was yelling at because of their pranks and stuff. But they've been in trouble plenty already and she hasn't written a single howler at them. Last year she'd sent two by the end of the first month, I remember cause I was upstairs when she was making them. They're just as loud on the other end."

Harry furrowed his brow in thought as they walked, slowly, towards the Great Hall; there was no point in getting there too early because the food wouldn't be set out just yet.

"You should bring all that up with Snape in your detention." Harry finally said.

"That won't help," Ron whined, "he's gonna spend the whole time yelling at me for going against a Slytherin in the classroom. That's like, the biggest House rule. Slytherins are supposed to always stick together in public. No public in-fighting."

"Sounds like Hufflepuff to me." Harry returned with a chuckle, "If it gets too bad you should see Professor Mcgonagall. She _is_ the Deputy Headmistress."

"Why would she help?" Ron asked, "I'm not a Gryffindor."

"She's deputy of the whole school, not just Gryffindor." Harry answered, "She's in charge of all the students, and she's _supposed _to not be biased in it, so I'd give it a try."

Harry frowned anew, why was the Deputy Head also a Head of House? Even if she _was_ fair, the fact that she was Head of Gryffindor obviously discouraged other houses from coming to her with issues.

As Ron thought about what Potter had said for a moment while they walked, the Great Hall came into view.

"I'm meeting with the headmaster and Professor Mcgonagall at the beginning of lunch about Najash. So I've got to head that way." Harry said as he indicated a door further down the corridor that led up.

"Alright," Ron replied, "thanks for the advice about Mcgonagall. But, can I ask you one more question before you go?" Potter nodded his head cautiously, "What did you do to make the school stop coming down on you about your pet? On Sunday almost all of Gryffindor avoided you over it, but everything was mostly back to normal by Monday evening."

Harry laughed, "That was Dudley's idea, I just told everyone who'd listen the story of how Najash saved my aunt. She was attacked by an adder in her garden and Najash took the other snake mid-strike to protect her. He's great, and Gryffindor loves a hero story. It didn't hurt that while I was telling it, Hermione or Parvati would have Najash playing in their hair."

Ron nodded at that, his eyes glancing to the arm he had seen the snake slithered under the sleeve of earlier, "He doesn't seem nearly as scary as I thought he'd be when everyone was still whispering about it and no one had seen it yet. One of the most common rumours floating around was that you were hiding that you were a parseltongue."

Harry frowned at that, "Yeah your brothers, the twins, told me about that. That's why I started showing off Najash when I did."

"Cool, thanks again Potter."

"Harry." He returned, "If we're going to try and be civil, then call me Harry. In the non magical world last names are saved for people with authority and people you don't like."

"Okay, uh, Harry." Ron replied, "I guess, call me 'Ron' then?"

"Sure thing… Ron," Harry said as he began heading off to meet with Professor Mcgonagall before going to the headmaster's office, "and if your housemates keep bothering you then feel free to hang out with us sometimes."

"Thanks." Ron wasn't sure if he could really trust his eyes and ears. After three weeks of seeming to hate his guts, Harry Potter was offering to be his friend? It's not like he didn't understand why Harry didn't like him too much. Three weeks in the Slytherin dorms had taught him how much words could hurt, especially ones that weren't _obviously _hurtful. Malfoy had managed to turn 'ambition' and 'cunning' into insults. But Potter seemed like the type to hold a bit of a grudge; and it wasn't until several nights after the Sorting that Ron had realized just how badly he'd stuck his foot in his mouth that day, when Nott had insulted Ron's uncles Gideon and Fabian, who'd died in the war, by joking about the Death Eater's who'd "gotten away from them.''


	15. Chapter 14: and Blood Wards

**AN: As should be clear from the chapter title. This chapter started as just the end of the last one, but quickly grew to be too large. This ended up happening twice in a row now, and has thrown off my schedule a little. In any case, enjoy.**

**AN*: Between these chapters getting separated, and work picking up for the fall (the only time of I have a lot to do mid-week) my writing has slowed. I won't start delaying chapters until I have no more to post (another three weeks if I finish no more chapters in that time), but if that happens I will back down to a post every couple weeks to give me time to write around Real Life problems. Do not let this cause you to think I may abandon or leave the story, if it seems like I'm falling way behind I'll cut down on Dungeons and Dragons.**

… and Blood Wards

"So you still have no idea why this meeting is taking place?" Professor Mcgonagall asked Harry as they made their way to the gargoyle that protected the headmaster's office.

"No ma'am," Harry answered, "after she ran those tests on me and Najash last weekend Madame Pomfrey said that I absolutely had to. But she couldn't tell me why. She said she wanted a second opinion, and his was the best. Do you think she found out I can Speak and freaked out or something?"

Mcgonagall pursed her lips in thought, "No, Poppy is more professional than that. May I ask though, why do you call… 'it' like that?"

"Huh?" Harry asked, momentarily confused, "Oh, Speaking?" he glanced around to make sure they were alone, "That's what snakes call it. Snakes don't have ears so they can't hear like we do, they mostly feel vibrations in the ground instead. People who aren't parseltongue are basically 'mute' to them unless they're shouting, and that doesn't make any sense to them. So, those of us they _can _talk to, they call 'Speakers'."

"That's rather interesting." Professor Mcgonagall returned, "I didn't know that about snakes and ears, but it explains why parseltongue is traditionally understood to be unteachable. It wouldn't matter if you can imitate the sounds, if snakes can't hear them without the natural magic of the parselmouth."

"Yeah, Hermione and I tried back in the spring. Najash laughed at her when she tried to Speak because he thought she was making faces at him. She can't hear all the sounds either, so I think part of the magic is in my ears too."

Madame Pomfrey was waiting for them beside the gargoyle, and the three ascended together. When they entered the headmaster's office he was standing in the corner talking to his phoenix, and turned as they entered to greet them.

"Now that we're all here, can someone please explain to Mister Potter and I what is going on?" Mcgonagall began.

"Yes," Madame Pomfrey answered, "I've shown Albus, with Mister Potter's permission, the results of my diagnostics on both his familiar and himself. All aspects of the familiar bond appear to have been properly executed, with no apparent future risk to either bondmate."

"So we're both fine?" Harry confirmed, "Then why did we need to get anyone else involved?"

"Because," Pomfrey continued, "when I examined the size of your familiar's magical core I was astounded. I measured it three times before trusting my own work; and once I did, I had to check _you_ just to try and understand how you can still have so much magical strength. I expected to find that you have a significant hole in your magic, so to speak. Instead, you have more power than the average person your age, Mister Potter. From what I can tell from examining you, your magic is about at the level of someone one or two years older than yourself. This very high baseline is likely the only reason you aren't a squib, considering the age you were when this happened."

"As far as we can tell in charms class, Dudley and I have the most magic of anyone in our year." Harry returned.

"Yes well," Madame Pomfrey huffed, "the familiar ritual permanently takes a small part of your magic, but during the bonding much, much more magic than that is used. If a witch or wizard doesn't have enough magic to fuel the ritual it cannot be stopped, and they generally become either squibs, or near-squibs, assuming they don't die."

"The reason that I am being involved despite none of that being a worry, in case you were wondering," The headmaster interjected, "is because that large of a magical core will result in rather more significant growth in your familiar than we had originally suspected."

"I kinda figured that." Harry said worriedly, pointedly ignoring the comments about how dangerous could have been for his magic, "He's shed twice since we got to Hogwarts and grown a half inch already."

"Yes, well. His magical core is roughly equivalent in size to that of a lesser magical creature." Dumbledore explained, "Once she verified that you had not harmed yourself in forming the bond Madame Pomfrey wanted my opinion on whether, Najash was it? Whether Najash would potentially grow in size to become dangerous or at least alarming to the other students."

Harry's face turned white as a sheet.

"While I am inclined to think that is definitely possible," The headmaster continued, "I would like to offer an early solution to said problem." Harry and Mcgonagall both nodded for him to continue, "I would like to give you some tutelage on a specific, rather advanced, animal transfiguration. Hopefully by Easter at the latest, but likely closer to Christmas based on what I've heard of your abilities, you should be able to mask your serpent's true size. Normally this could be dangerous to a pet, but your magic will instinctively fight to not hurt your familiar, so injury is much less likely."

"What do you mean, sir?" Harry asked.

"If you were to cast a spell such as a cutting charm directly at him, you would likely find you magic not responding to you in much the same way that it is exceeding difficult to intentionally harm _yourself_ with your own magic." Dumbledore said, "But that's not what we are going to be doing. I wish to work with you on a variant of the shrinking charm, one that will make Najash smaller and last a rather long time."

Harry looked up at Professor Mcgonagall, who was eyeing the headmaster rather frostily.

"I am the transfiguration professor, why do you think I could not teach him?" She asked.

"Do you have time on top of your other duties?" The headmaster asked kindly, "I spent the last three days researching this spell, and it is rather complicated, but if you want to teach him you absolutely may."

"May I see it?" Mcgonagall asked, taking the opened book when offered. The spell _was _complicated, overly so for something that amounted to a pranking spell. But it would do what the headmaster said it would, and should last at least three days if not cancelled. Cancellation was obviously why this particular spell was chosen over a simpler shrinking charm, traditional counterspells wouldn't do anything unless cast by the original caster. Otherwise it required a specific spell to undo the effect.

"I will look at my schedule and see if I can fit in time to tutor Mister Potter on this." She said at length, "If it seems that I won't have time, I will write to Ms. Acacia and see if we can arrive at a solution. Will that work for you, Mister Potter?"

"Yes ma'am," Harry responded, "I've been worried about the growing thing since Professor Snape mentioned it. If he grows an inch a month then he'll be a meter long when we go home in the summer. My aunt would freak out if that happened, and I really don't want to have to leave him at one of my parents' properties because he gets too big."

Albus was shocked at that. They'd accessed the Potter estates? Perhaps he could pull the records the next time he left for a meeting of the Wizengamot and find out who the new steward was. At least Amos was still sitting the Potter seat in proxy, though Albus would need to arrange for the steward, whoever it was, to meet with him soon.

"Regardless of who teaches him," He finally said, "Mister Potter will first need tutelage on how to recognize and feel the bond he has with his familiar. As I am the only staff member in the school who actually _has_ a bonded familiar, that will have to be given by myself. This will also help him since he will have to learn to cast it wandlessly if he wants to maintain the spell out of school. Though you are obviously invited to sit in on those sessions, should Mister Potter agree to them."

"I want to ask Ms. Acacia about it." Harry said after a moment and another look to Mcgonagall, "But I think she'll say yes when I tell her about Najash."

"Well then," The headmaster said, clapping his hands, "lunch is well underway by this point, why don't you go down, join your friends, and grab a bite before your afternoon classes."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Come in, Mister Weasley." Snape said after Ron had knocked on the door.

"I'm here for my detention, sir." Ron said meekly as he entered.

"Anything you want to say, Weasley?" Snape hissed, "I told you on the very first night that Slytherins were to always show a united front in public. You are one of us now."

Ron grimaced, "You should have made sure Malfoy and Nott knew that. Between them being gits, and my father apparently opposing some of the other's parents in politics, no one in the Slytherin even tries to treat me like 'one of them'. I've been pranked and hexed more by my own housemates than I have by my brothers."

"Sounds like you have simply done a poor job of networking. Just as you do a poor job in class!"

Ron built up his courage and tried to recall what he'd read from the school rules that afternoon at Harry's suggestion for a moment before continuing, "Professor Snape, I'm bringing an official complaint against the actions of Slytherin House to you. Bullying of a housemate including magic use. What are you going to do to address it?"

"You can take your complaint to your fellow snakes and see if they care about it." Snape hissed back.

"Then after this I'm going to be going to Professor Mcgonagall." Ron answered, sounding more sure than he felt, "She's the Deputy Headmistress, if you won't help me then she will."

Snape scowled at him, "Granger probably told you to say all that, I saw you talking to her outside the Great Hall after lunch."

"Actually, it was Harry who told me about that." Ron answered.

"Oh?" Snape sneered, "_Harry_, is it?"

Ron shrank in on himself a little, "He said he wanted to give being friends another go, and muggles apparently don't like using last names except for adults and people they don't like. I was apologizing to Gr-Hermione earlier, for _having _to mistreat her… to appease my housemates… when you saw us talking."

Snape stared at him in silence for several seconds before responding, "I will speak with your housemates concerning their treatment of you. Especially now that apparently other Houses are aware of it. But I expect an improvement in your performance Weasley. It is an unwritten rule that Slytherins are never in the bottom quarter of the school, fix that."

"What about Crabbe and Goyle, sir?" Ron asked, _was Snape actually saying he'd help?_

"Those dunderheads don't have two brain cells to rub together." Snape hissed, "but unlike you, they have the massive safety net of their families' connections to the Malfoys and Notts."

Ron wasn't sure what "brain cells" were, but he knew the Professor had actually just insulted members of his own House that weren't named "Weasley".

"It is actually a rather cunning solution to your academic problems though," Snape sneered, "to attach yourself to arguably the best students in your year. _That _is representative of the networking skills befitting of a truly ambitious Slytherin. Not that I would ever say so."

Malfoy had used those words for three weeks like daggers. Constantly comparing Ron to his family and jeering at him. For the first time since coming to Hogwarts, Ron Weasley didn't feel that "ambitious" was meant as an insult. Though he still wasn't sure about "cunning," how was it "cunning" to get saved by someone because you froze up?

"Of course," Snape continued, "I never would have thought to set myself in danger, expecting to be saved by someone who didn't like me, just to ingratiate myself to a potential ally." He smirked as realization dawned on Weasley's face.

"Right sir," Ron nodded, _this is perfect,_ "couldn't waste the chance right?"

"Indeed," Snape said as he went back to studying the essays on his desk, "If your grievance against your House is now addressed, you still have a detention to complete. Clean out the cauldrons piled on that table. You may use cleaning charms to get started, but I want every one of them wiped out properly with a rag as well."

"Yes sir… thank you sir." Ron said as he went to work.

"And Weasley," Snape looked up at him once more as Ron set the first cauldron in front of him, "the next time you need to speak to me against a member of Slytherin? Do it here, never again in front of other Houses."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

_Father,_

_As I told you in my first letter home, I attempted to befriend Potter on the Express and failed. I wrote it off then as him simply being indoctrinated by Dumbledore, but I have learned other things since then that clash tremendously with that._

_One thing I have learned, but don't know what to do with here, is that Dumbledore is _not_ Potter's magical guardian! I don't know who it is, but a Hufflepuff overheard that the Headmaster isn't allowed to be alone with Potter, on his guardian's orders. Regardless of why though, it seems he isn't in Dubledore's camp as much as you had feared. He also recently accepted the Slytherin Weasley into his group, despite being offended by him repeatedly. The Weasley really surprised me with how he tricked Potter into feeling like he needed to help him, I will be watching that one in the future._

_There are other things too, I have tried to learn more before writing to you, but don't seem to be making any headway. The mudblood girl isn't the only one of Potter's friends who can perform wandless magic; both Potter himself, and his mudblood cousin can do it too. According to a Ravenclaw they have some book that taught them that Flitwick is now looking at to try and teach others, but I haven't heard anything about it otherwise. How can the secrets of wandless magic just be laying around in a book somewhere though? I am sure that Potter is sharing a family grimoire with the mudbloods, or something to that effect. _

_The last strange thing around Potter was Longbottom's wand. He came to school with a family wand, I could tell by the obvious age and wear on it. But after lunch the first day of class his wand was brand new again. This happened after he left lunch with Potter, he left with an old wand and came back with a new one that was the same, color and all. At the end of the week, Longbottom's Grandmother apparently took him to get his own wand, but I have no idea how Potter renewed the original one. Other than some kind of time magic?_

_ I am still excelling in all of my studies, and have made strides towards establishing my proper place as a Malfoy in House Slytherin. You _will _be proud of me. Please let me know if there is any specific information I can get for you on Potter. I have an effective informant now that Weasley is allowed in his circle. I will continue watching him for clues to the above mysteries, particularly his guardian. Until your reply,_

_ Your Son, _

_ Draco Malfoy_

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"What do you mean it won't be teachable?" Hermione asked, dismayed.

"I'm afraid I have no idea how the three of you were able to make these meditation techniques work for you without any prior magical training at all." Professor Flitwick answered as he gestured at the book he had been studying since the first week. He'd been putting off their talk about this for a while as he tried to figure out how they had done it, but had drawn a total blank.

"Frankly," He continued, "it should be impossible. The techniques described here require a sensitivity to small magical impulses, something that most people learn over time as they work with their magic extensively. You three all being able to feel your magic reacting with your wands as they are picked up is practically unheard of for your age. The first time you ever touch them? Sure, absolutely. But not the third, or fourth, or fortieth time."

"Dang," Neville said, a little let down, "I was hoping you could figure out why I couldn't do it with them coaching me."

Hermione scrunched her brow in thought as she looked at her friends. Neville, Padma and Parvati, and Justin had followed the three of them hoping for good news. _There has to be a reason!_ She thought to herself, _One of us would be one thing. But if Professor Flitwick is _this_ surprised then there must be a reason why it's all of us!_

"Hermione if you keep chewing your lip like that it's gonna bleed." Harry said as he put a hand on her arm to calm her down, "We can just add it to the list of weird stuff. Like Dudley and I not being able to feel the wards on our house."

"I'm sorry, what?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"The Headmaster put wards on my aunt's house when he left me with her." Harry answered, "Hermione was able to feel them every time she crossed them, but Dudley and I had no idea they were even there."

"You live in a muggle area correct?" Flitwick pressed, "Which would make the wards on your house the only magic around you?"

Harry and Dudley nodded to both questions.

Flitwick frowned, it was common to become accustomed to magic over time and stop noticing when you move from one ward boundary to another. But _any _wizard should be able to tell when they leave the mundane and enter the magical, even if it was just a small tingle. The sudden presence of magic around you when previously there was none should be unmistakable. That simple fact was what finally convinced most of the more sceptical muggleborns he introduced to the magical world that they were, indeed, magical. Flitwick quizzed the two about their incidents of accidental magic over their childhoods, learning that Mister Dursley had appeared to only ever have two instances of accidental magic in his young life. Strange considering how often Mister Potter apparently had accidental magical discharges, until he remembered how uncannily strong the boy seemed to be.

"I may have a theory about why you cannot feel the ward boundaries around your home. But I will need to ask Dumbledore some things first. If I am right I will let you know." Flitwick paused for a second as he continued thinking, "Actually, if I'm right then it could mean I also know how all three of you were able to use the information in this book so effectively."

Hermione's face lit up at that, "Really? Could you tell us what you think?"

"I wouldn't want to truly speculate without conferring with the Headmaster about the specific nature of the wards." He deferred, "But be confident that if I am right, then you three will be the first to know."

Before she could try and ask again, he left the charms classroom in a hurry. _Yes, _he thought, _and if that old man doesn't have a good explanation then the next to know _might _be the DMLE._

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Fillius? Is something the matter?" Albus Dumbledore asked as he looked up from his reading to see the Head of Ravenclaw, who had let himself into the office without being summoned.

Filius Flitwick stood directly in front of the Headmaster's desk and took a single breathe before answering, "Albus, I have been speaking to Mister Potter and Mister Dursley today."

"Oh yes, that book on wandless magic!" Albus exclaimed, "Have you figured it out? Do you need help? I would love to be able to offer some kind of special class in the future. We could be the first school in Europe, maybe even the world, with a pre-NEWT wandless magic course! This could revolutionize-"

Filius thought about how to ask what he needed to as Albus rambled. It _would _have been amazing, if the search hadn't led to discovering something horribly unethical.

_Catching him off guard might be best, _"Albus, did you put Blood Wards on Mister Potter's home?"

"What?" _What?_ The headmaster froze mid-ramble at the unexpected question, "Why would you ask something like that, Filius?"

The part-goblin frowned, "In speaking with the two boys, as well as Miss Granger, about the conditions they were in when they first began reading that book, I learned that there are wards on their home. Miss Granger says that she feels them every time she comes onto the property, that it's almost like entering Diagon Alley."

"Yes, there are several rather powerful wards on their home. I'm sure a witch as gifted as I've heard Miss Granger is would be able to identify what she felt rather easily."

"But neither boy was capable of feeling the wards. Even after returning from long-weekends." Filius returned. "And both of them are in the same league as Miss Granger." He thought about that for a moment, "Well, maybe not in theory. But in practise? Most definitely. The only way they could live for ten years on a warded property in a muggle area and not know it is if the ward was blood bound to them."

Albus sighed, "Yes, there is a Blood Ward on Harry's home. But if you would allow me to explain."

"Explain!" Filius shouted, "What is there to explain! You tied the wards _you_ made to those boys! It's a wonder they are still alive!"

"Listen to me!" Albus shouted back, rattling several instruments on his shelves as a bit of magic flared from him. _This _mustn't _be misinterpreted,_ Albus thought, _but at least Filius is someone I can probably trust with this, _"This must not leave this room, for Harry's safety! There are many wards on that house, all tied together in the array, but only _one _is a Blood Ward! Based off of a blood-based protection that Lily herself had left on her son that Halloween."

"What?" Filius' mind immediately shifted gears, _Lily Potter had studied blood magic?_

"Filius, I must reiterate that this must not leave this room!" After receiving a tentative nod he continued, "When Harry Potter was recovered from the wreckage of his family's home I discovered that his mother had erected some sort of sacrificial blood barrier around the boy. I recognized it almost as soon as Hagrid handed him to me and went back to the wreckage of the Potters' home later to find what she'd done. It is one of the most powerful protections I have ever encountered, protecting young Harry from harm by the one who slew his mother in defense of her son." Dumbledore paused to take a breath.

"I can theorize how that might function." Filius nodded in agreement, "But that is not the same as a Blood Ward, however similar it may sound to the untrained ear."

"No," Albus continued, "but after the attack I got the idea for a Blood Ward when I saw how Lily had protected baby Harry. You must understand, I am not a complete stranger to less savoury magics. No one who fought in Grindelwald's war truly can be. I know the dangers of a Blood Ward to the one bound to it, but I also took precautions to circumvent them. After learning of the nature of this protection, I came back here and began researching how to do what I had planned. A few nights later, I returned and applied the ward with the Dursley family none the wiser."

The charms professor merely raised an eyebrow in anticipation of what he clearly expected to be nonsense.

Albus walked over to a bookshelf and began looking for a particular tome as he explained, "I used the extremely specific nature of Lily's protection, as well as access to the Dark Mark through Severus, to create a unique defense ward that will single out those Marked by Voldemort."

"That's…" Filius staggered under the possible implications of that.

"Unreplicable." Albus finished for him, "The ward doesn't seem to work without Lily's protection of Harry bound to it as well. Believe me I've tried, much to Severus' displeasure. "

Flitwick nodded, obviously the only way to test such a ward would be to pull Snape away from his precious potions, and risk inflicting harm on the man if it worked.

Albus handed him the book he had pulled, an ancient treatise on exotic wardings.

"That ward obviously has never discharged," The Headmaster went on, "and even if it did I put a twenty-four hour delay on it attempting to recharge itself. That would give me plenty of time to come and recharge the thing myself after dealing with whoever triggered it in the first place. I would never have placed that ward if I thought it would pose a threat to young Harry. Though I may as well admit, I did assume that the tug from the ward would mean that he wouldn't have as many bouts of accidental magic. Once it happened a few times his magic would be fairly depleted until he left the premises for a few days. With the boy growing up in a muggle home, I felt that less accidental magic could only be a benefit. The only other thing it does is keep him from feeling any of the wards at all."

"From what the two boys told me, Mister Dursley is the only one who appears to have had lesser bouts of accidental magic. Mister Potter had a few hilarious stories, honestly." Filius crossed his arms, "But I still feel uncomfortable with this, I think I need to tell them about what that ward does to them while they're inside of it. It may not drain their magic while it's already charged, but it won't regenerate if they were to use wandless magic while they were at home. They could find themselves magically exhausted and not understand why."

_Won't regenerate?_ Why did that stick in Albus' head so strongly?

"I'm sure by now that you're aware of the animosity between myself and Mister Potter's magical guardian?" Albus asked, eliciting another curt nod, "I've been told that she is friendly with the Gringotts goblins, when you tell Misters Dursley and Potter about this, would you mention to them that Gringotts has teams that could test the wards? I don't want them to think I had some ulterior or nefarious motive with this. I know, and you know, how dangerous this ward _could_ be. I want them to have assurances that there is no danger at all."

"I think I'll _insist_ on that examination of the wards, Headmaster." The charms professor stated, closing the book and resting it under his arm, "I'll withhold reporting this to the Ministry until after that has been done. If everything is as you say it is, I will drop it completely. There is, however, a silver lining. All of this _has_ reinforced my theory on how those children are so adept at wandless magic. You might not like it though, since I'm not sure it could be made into a class."

"Don't keep me in suspense, tell me."

"The book the students had confused me because it seemed to assume that the reader already had a good sense of how to feel for their magic, something no first year could do reliably. Well, we both know what it is like to cross into a ward boundary from a place where there is no active magic at all, right?"

"Yes, but the two boys shouldn't be able to feel the ward at all, being tied to it. What would that help?" Albus asked.

"They all found their magic via wand-bonding meditation, but Miss Granger indicated that she probably could have worked faster with the ward on the Dursleys' home and chose not to because her friends didn't have that option. I believe that ward itself is what allowed those children to feel their magic so young."

"How so?"

"Misters Dursley and Potter both stated that they were able to feel a spark of magic when they picked up their wands after dropping them for only a few seconds. I believe that this enhanced sensitivity was due to their magic being mostly drained by accidental magic and the Blood Ward, almost _any_ spark of magic would be felt by them at that point I would think. And once they got it, so to speak, they could perform on command."

"But what about Miss Granger?" Albus asked.

"She, I believe, is a different case. She told me that she could feel the ward as she crossed it, obviously, so the same reason can't apply. In her case, I think it actually comes down to just having a higher than average magical sensitivity. Minerva has stated that she's the best transfiguration student in her year by a large margin. Exactly what you would expect from someone with an uncanny ability to feel how their own magic flows."

As Albus pondered what this could mean, Minerva Mcgonagall barged into the room.

"Albus what did you do to the Dursleys' home?" Her scottish accent thickening in frustration as she closed the door behind her, "Oh, Filius! I'm sorry, I didn't know you were here."

"Quite alright," the part goblin answered, "I was just asking the Headmaster questions about that very same topic, what has you so flustered?"

"Albus," She said, turning to the Headmaster and fighting to keep her accent understandable, and in proper English, "I just received a rather frustrated sounding letter from Ms. Acacia asking for advice about a young muggleborn girl that lives several doors down from the Dursleys. Apparently she is becoming skilled at wandless magic despite not even owning a wand, due to interacting with the wards. Something she began doing the same day the boys boarded the express. Ms. Acacia, as well as the Potter Steward who has been teaching her control, would like an explanation. Frankly? So would I. According to them, all the girl had done was pass into and out of the wards several dozen times and suddenly she could levitate things."

Filius grinned broadly as he moved to leave, a plan forming in his head for how to make the unteachable, teachable, "Albus, I will still be speaking to those three about what we discussed, as well as insisting they write a letter to their guardian about it. But give me two more weeks and I think I'll have a plan for that wandless class that doesn't involve anything dangerous. Minerva, please come see me after you're done here. If Albus hasn't lied to me today, then this could change everything we thought we knew about why wandless magic is difficult."

The Head of Gryffindor blinked owlishly as she tried to process her fellow Head's whiplash statements, "Alright, I'll see you after this then."

As Flitwick left the room, Albus finally remembered why his assertion that the boy's wouldn't be able to regenerate magic threw him off. _Najash!_ How would it be possible for young Harry to have continued having bouts of accidental magic after binding the snake if the Blood Ward was up? Him being unconscious for days afterwards made more sense now, his magic was suddenly and totally depleted, but how did he pull in more magic while his core was being "used" by the ward? Power only flows one way at a time.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Petunia frowned as she finished reading the overlong letter penned by Professors Flitwick and Mcgonagall, "Vernon, I need to go see Griphook tomorrow about this ward. I'll need the car."

Vernon, who was still finishing up the shorter letter Dudley and the others had written, looked up, "Something wrong? This thing seems like a godsend! Could you imagine if Harry had had even more magic incidents while he was growing up?"

"These professors say that normally 'Blood Wards' are very dangerous. The headmaster claims to have done something special with this one, otherwise it would have apparently drained both our boys' magic and killed them mere days after making it."

Vernon dropped the letter he was holding, "What! That man-"

"There's a lot of magical jargon I don't understand at the bottom of this," she interrupted, "but when these professors confronted Dumbledore about it he was quick to suggest that 'Ms. Acacia' hire Gringotts to verify that the ward is as safe as he says it is. Apparently the Headmaster isn't playing around with this. I'm supposed to present this description of the ward, as well as a book title that the headmaster supposedly used for reference when making it, I'm planning to give them to Griphook or Axegut and see what they recommend."

"What could possibly be so important that he would risk Harry's life like that?" Vernon asked her, to which she raised an eyebrow, "What? He couldn't have known Dudley was a wizard too, so he didn't know he was risking anyone but Harry."

Petunia sighed at that, "I see your point. If you remember, Voldemort had a habit of branding his followers with that magic tattoo. Mcgonagall calls it 'The Dark Mark' in this letter. The headmaster was able to figure out how to make a ward whose only purpose is to identify and incapacitate anyone with that mark, and keep our boys from knowing it was there. If Gringotts inspects the ward and finds it does anything else, then we're supposed to press charges against Dumbledore."

Vernon grinned at that, he'd wanted to get back at Dumbledore since the man had dropped Harry off on their doorstep without a proper explanation. That desire only grew as he learned more of how much this man's negligence had affected his nephew, "Alright Pet. If you'd like, I'll come with you to Gringotts. Not much else to do on a Sunday anyway."

Petunia was shocked, Vernon usually avoided dealing with magic situations like this whenever possible, "I would like that dear."

Gringotts sent a cursebreaker later that week, a witch employed by Gringotts who signed an extra magical confidentiality agreement in addition to the standard one and was still never told who actually lived in the home. She spent half a day trying to find any aspect of the ward scheme that could have posed a health issue to either of the wizards bound to it only to come up empty. Griphook reluctantly informed Vernon and Petunia that the wards were exactly as Dumbledore had described, and were about as effective as the best wards money could possibly have bought. With the added bonus of being impossible to detect until one was already inside them.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

_Draco,_

_ There is no need to press for information concerning Potter's Magical Guardian. I went to the Ministry on Saturday after receiving your letter and confirmed that the Guardianship belongs to a squib named Peony Acacia. My first thought was to try and have the Wizengamot overturn that, but apparently she has claimed Guardianship via blood relation, so such a motion would not work. While in the Room of Records I learned that Dumbledore was looking for an Acacia family in South America. He even took an international portkey there last week. I intend to do my own investigations on that continent, so I will not be available until the end of next month. Dumbledore doesn't seem to have found anything down there, but I will have more time and freedom to look._

_ If the goblin truly figures out how Potter and his mudbloods are so proficient with wandless magic and offers to teach it you _will_ be going! I don't care if you have to learn it directly from one of the mudbloods! Keep me informed on _that_ front most of all. If the goblin hasn't offered anything by way of explanation by Halloween I will press for an investigation into the matter. At the moment though, I doubt that it is some sort of family magic that is being shared here._

_ Weasley's father is planning on presenting some sort of legislation to the Wizengamot soon that would allow him to search for, and seize, family heirlooms if they are of a darker persuasion. Obviously this would be frustrating for the family, I want you to see if you can learn anything from Weasley about his father that could be used to keep Arthur Weasley from being a thorn in my side. Perhaps a miracle happened and a true pureblood was born to blood traitors in this 'Ronald'._

_ Lastly, seriously Draco I am disappointed. Time magic is outside the realm of possibility. Not even the Dark Lord, in his prime, would have meddled with such magics over something as base as making a wand younger. The much simpler explanation is that either Potter or Longbottom has a second wand! Carrying two wands is illegal, and could get one of them expelled. If you discover that it is Potter, let me know immediately. _

_ Lord Malfoy_

Draco nodded to himself as he reread the letter for the third time, committing it to memory, and threw it into the fire. He was the first one in the common room that morning, despite it being a Monday, and had taken the opportunity to read the letter his father had sent via house elf. A convenient loophole in the Hogwarts wards that many purebloods used to send messages without risking interception.

Draco spent the next hour considering how he could go about his father's requests concerning Potter and Weasley. Seeing the redhead moving through the common room towards breakfast, he decided the best course was to start slow. Step one: no more heckling the Weasel.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Two weeks later, Professor Flitwick announced the trial run of the first wandless magic course that would be taught at Hogwarts. His announcement came with the explanation that such a class would be offered over the summer. But, the first class would only be available to third years and above in pairs consisting of one _muggle-raised_ student and one not, much to the chagrin of Slytherin House in particular. This was to protect the Statute of Secrecy, as the class would begin with a month in a muggle summer camp.

More than one pureblood student was left wondering if the charms professor had finally lost his marbles like the Headmaster was often speculated to have done. How could a month with _no magic_ help learn wandless magic? What kind of sense does that make? The promise that this summer class would also be counted as being equivalent to taking the third-year Muggle Studies course did little to ease their doubts. But almost every student in the school was planning to attend the more detailed explanation scheduled for December.


	16. Chapter 15: The Secret Squib

The Secret Squib

"Mister Dursley! What a surprise!" Remus Lupin called from his seat at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor as the Dursleys passed him on their way to Gringotts.

"Yes, well." Vernon demurred, "Petunia here reminded me that if I don't make an effort I won't be able to relate to my own son when he comes home. Please, call me Vernon as well. I feel like a stranger here with that 'Mister Dursley' talk."

"Very well. I'm sorry, if I'd known you were coming I would have ordered you a sunday as well." Remus continued as he indicated the waitress walking over with five take-out boxes.

"That's quite alright, I've finally gone back on those magical weight management drops and I don't need to give them more work to do." The larger man joked back, slapping his oversize belly as he did, "But won't that ice cream melt?"

"Not to worry sir," the waitress answered as Remus pulled out some money, "The boxes have a cooling charm inside that's guaranteed to last two hours, minimum. The ice cream sundays will be as fresh as if they had just been made until then."

Once the ice cream was paid for, the three headed into Gringotts to collect their portkey. Vernon had spent all morning psyching himself up for this, magical travel to visit one of his nephew's properties. He'd been trying to take a more hands-on approach to magic since the incident with Tina, and really hoped that doing so would keep him from being blindsided quite so often. That and Petunia threatened to not order the weight drops he was using again if he didn't know what all their children's classes were before they returned home for Christmas.

The 'Portkey' turned out to be a moderately large silver cup of some kind. Remus explained to Vernon that every house had a second copy of the portkey on-site except for the lodge he was staying at now, which only ever had the one in Gringotts. The other one for this house was how Temperance Smith was coming and going since the wards had been reset to not allow entry any other way. Vernon wasn't sure what to make of it though, the cup didn't look magical at all. It didn't have gems or nonsense runes on it, it just looked pretty old. His confusion was abated when all three adults touched the goblet and Remus spoke the command word "Potter Isle," he felt like something hooked him around his midsection and began spinning him away from the ground.

Vernon sputtered as he landed on his behind after the portkey dropped them off. Petunia lost her balance for a moment but was able to compose herself properly, it wasn't her first time travelling to the Isle to visit Temperance and her children. Though it was the first time she would be telling them her real identity and relationship to Harry. So far they only thought she was a very distant relative that had become concerned and intervened rather recently.

"This is quite nice." Vernon said as he stood up, taking in the scenery on the island. There were two large, identical cottages overlooking the water, though 'cottage' was only applicable due to the style. The buildings were two floors, and each was larger than their home on Privet Drive. Vernon could see what he assumed was the mainland in the distance as well. Behind him, the island was lightly forested, and between the two cottages he saw the land marked off where Mister Lupin was planning to install the greenhouses that Harry wanted. Lupin had said that the island was about a mile square, but it seemed a lot bigger when you were standing on it.

"Ms. Acacia, Mister Lupin, welcome!" A voice called from the front door of one of the cottages, "James is making sure Heathcliff gets cleaned up, the children were playing down by the beach earlier. Thank you for sending those toys as well…" She paused as she realized there was another man present.

"Temperance, may I introduce my husband?" 'Ms. Acacia' asked as she stepped to the front of the group, "Vernon Dursley."

The three only needed to wait a moment for Ms. Smith to question, "Dursley?"

"Yes, I'm afraid I've not been completely honest with you until today," Petunia explained, causing Ms. Smith to frown in worry, "'Ms. Acacia' is a pseudonym I used during the war to keep people from realizing who I was, because it would make me a target. My real name is Petunia Dursley, formerly _Evans_. Lily Potter was my sister, so Harry is actually my nephew-by-blood. I've continued to use 'Ms. Acacia' to keep distance between Harry and myself, and those who would try to use him or his name."

"We've been thinking that it isn't right for your children to not have anyone else their age to talk to and play with." Vernon said, stepping forward, "My wife is also the guardian of a young witch that grew up near us. I wanted to meet you, and _we_ wanted to discuss perhaps bringing Tina out here some weekends. She's the only magical person in our town that we know of besides our own boys, who are at school, so it would do her good as well to have a friend or two she doesn't have to keep that kind of secret from."

"That would be the young girl I told you about last time we spoke," Remus spoke up now, "the one who is performing controlled magic before receiving her wand."

"Oh of course!" Temperance exclaimed before covering her mouth to conceal her giggles, "Did… did she really turn all the walls green trying to cast a lighting charm?"

"Yes." Vernon, Petunia, and Remus answered together. Vernon in frustration, Petunia in resignation… and Remus in good humour, he was enjoying teaching little Tina. More advanced spells were seemingly beyond her without a wand, but her precision with levitation was improving, and some other simple charms had begun working for her rather quickly as well.

"I was trying to get her to light up her fingers or hand, since she doesn't have a wand." Remus explained, "But she didn't want the light to be white like the one on my wand was, so she kept cutting it off as soon as she realized it wasn't green like she wanted. Vernon walked in and started yelling at us to fix his house, and that's when we realized she'd basically been painting the walls greener and greener every time she tried to turn her Lumos charm that colour."

"That's quite the misfire." Temperance replied, openly laughing.

"Why don't we go inside?" Vernon said, spying a pair of children peeking at them through the window, "Remus here got ice cream for everyone."

The children were ecstatic when Petunia and Temperance began handing out ice cream sundays. Once the two older kids were playing cards in the next room and Heathcliff was napping on the couch, the adults chatted about their plans for the immediate future. Temperance had finished cleaning out both of the cottages on the island last weekend, but she was worried that the other properties would be too large for her to get done while hopping back and forth from the Isle. They also agreed that they would tentatively plan to bring Tina to meet James and Marielle sometime over the next weekend. Temperance had been taking her children to parks every now and then so they could play, but that didn't leave them with the chance to get to know any of the other kids they played with.

There was an extra shock after Petunia mentioned that they were visiting Andromeda Tonks that evening when Temperance confessed that Andromeda was something of her role model. The former Black had been a few years ahead of her in Hogwarts, and the two had spoken on a few occasions during their time there. When she learned of how well Andromeda was doing despite being disowned she had opted to try it herself, eloping with the muggle boy she had secretly grown close to over her last two summers before graduating. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as well as she'd hoped.

The friendly conversation took a downward turn when Petunia offered to give James a leg-up before he went off to Hogwarts in two years, explaining in vague terms why Tina was apparently so capable with her magic despite not getting her wand yet.

"I'm not sure that Hogwarts would be a good idea." Temperance tearfully confided, "My father might try and take them from there if he finds out, he has friends on the school board. I was hoping to have found a way to set up in a different country before then, so it wouldn't be an issue."

While Vernon and Petunia consoled the woman and offered to help her find a solution to her plight, Remus ransacked his brain for any tidbit of magical law or custom that could protect the Smith family.

Just as Temperance was getting her tears under control he asked, "I don't believe I asked before, but did your father officially disown you when you married Joseph?"

The woman looked at Remus like he had just stabbed her heart with a dagger, "No!" she bit out, "He did that after I got pregnant with James."

"Did he ever reinstate you?" The werewolf continued, "Please understand, I'm not asking this just to inflict more pain."

"What do you think you're doing man?" Vernon demanded as Petunia pulled Temperance closer to console her anew.

"No." The distraught witch answered, "He said he was going to, but that was just a lie to get me to come back so he could try and take my children."

Remus smirked at that and Vernon made to punch him before the man explained why he had been asking such emotionally charged questions, "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but I think I know how to protect you_, and _your children, so that they can go to Hogwarts in peace. Assuming that is what you wish."

Remus, Vernon, and Petunia left Potter Isle, and a much more hopeful, if incredulous, Smith family, an hour later via portkey .

Time to meet Remus' first, and so far only, pick as Harry's proxy on the Wizengamot.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"You're going to have to do it eventually, Vernon." Petunia huffed from the passenger seat as Remus fought to keep from laughing in the back of the Dursleys' sedan.

This argument had been going off-and-on since Vernon insisted that he would _not_ be taking floo travel. Portkeys were enough magical transport for him for one day, apparently. Knowing that he would have to use it in tandem with Remus if they _did _go that way didn't make him any more comfortable. Petunia had tried to argue that arriving the magical way would send the right message, and that despite the date this was still more or less a political meeting; but Remus had taken pity on Vernon and offered the suggestion that since Theodore Tonks was a muggleborn they might appreciate arrival by car more than they suspected. Fortunately the Tonks's lived less than an hour from the Leaky Cauldron, but Remus did not envy the pair's eventual drive back to Little Whinging.

Vernon smiled as he pulled into the driveway at the address he'd been given. The house looked completely normal, and not overly large like the ones on Potter Isle had been. This was a normal house for normal people. They even had an SUV parked in the open garage. Remus, already being on the passenger's side of the vehicle, opened the door for Petunia while Vernon walked up to the door and rang the bell.

Vernon almost had an aneurism when a pink haired girl in her late teens, wearing ripped up jeans and a too-small shirt, answered the door, "Wotcher! Can I help you?" She asked.

"Erm," Vernon stumbled over his words for a moment as he tried to dismiss the girl's delinquent appearance, "I believe I have the wrong address, my wife and I were meeting with the Tonks's this evening. Do they live on this street?"

"Oh! I'm sorry!" The girl exclaimed, "My mum and dad told me they had some people visiting today but I expected you to come by floo!"

"Your mum and dad?" Vernon asked, worried that maybe Remus didn't know this lot as well as he thought.

"Nymphadora? Who's at the door?" Came a woman's voice from further in the house, causing the girl to groan audibly.

"Is everything alright Vernon?" Petunia asked as she and Remus made it to the front door.

"Are you Mrs. Dursley?" The girl asked when she saw the other two walk up.

"Yes I am, is this the Tonks' residence?"

"Uh, yeah." The girl responded, "Sorry, little confusion here since we weren't thinking you would come by car, come on inside."

The inside of the house appeared just as normal as the outside. Vernon could almost forget that the girl who answered the door looked like either a gang hoodlum or a trashy call-girl. The entryway led directly into a sitting room with a comfortable looking set of couch and chairs centered around a fireplace. The one thing Vernon didn't see in the room as a television, but he knew from Remus and Petunia talking that a lot of active magic makes complicated devices short out. A man met them in the sitting room coming from the other direction introducing himself as Theodore (call me Ted) Tonks, and took over leading his guests through to the dining room where his wife was finishing up setting the table.

"Your house is lovely." Petunia said as they left the sitting room.

"Thank you," Ted replied, "and I'm sorry about the confusion at the door. My daughter dropped in on us this afternoon without calling ahead, she does that from time to time. We can't really say 'no' because we don't get to see her that often with her beginning the auror training program. She graduated back in the spring and she's already trying to strike out on her own."

"I understand," Vernon agreed, "the boys have only been gone at school for two months and we can barely figure out what to do with ourselves. No one mentioned how hard it was on the parents when we were discussing Hogwarts being a boarding school."

"Don't we know it." The woman setting the dining room table said as they entered, "At least we see Nymphadora sometimes now, she never came home during breaks when she was at school."

"Probably because back at Hogwarts no one called me that." The girl in question grumbled from the back, beside Remus.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Andromeda Tonks." The woman said, pointedly ignoring her daughter's griping and shaking both Vernon and Petunia's hands as they introduced themselves, "And I remember you quite well, Mister Lupin. Where have you been? It's been too long."

"Just 'Remus' is still fine, and I spent a long while outside Britain. It's good to be back."

"What should we call you?" Petunia asked the Tonks' daughter, "If you don't prefer your name?"

"Uh," The girl stopped, then smiled that her parent's guests were so accommodating, "if you're gonna probably call my mum 'Andromeda' could you just call me 'Tonks'? No offense or anything, I just don't like my name all that much."

"Whyever not? I think it suits you." Remus said before getting a swift, though light, kick to the shin from the girl, "Alright," He joked, hopping around on the other leg in a pantomime of injury, "'Tonks' it is."

The two groups talked over dinner, keeping the conversation relatively light while they ate, but also taking the opportunity to share some stories of the late Potter family. As well, the Tonks family was quite impressed with the stories coming out of Hogwarts concerning Harry Potter's ability to cast wandless magic. Learning from the Dursleys that their own son, as well as Hermione, could all do it too left them even more so. When Petunia casually mentioned that Tina, a ten-year-old muggleborn girl on their street, was even faster at picking up beginner wandless magic than Harry and Dudley were, the youngest Tonks' hair began rapidly shifting colour and length as she asked rapid-fire questions about what kind of training they were using. With her going into auror training in earnest in January, wandless magic would be a huge bonus if she could learn it.

"Blimey!" Vernon exclaimed as Tonks' hair shifted from pink to bright red to canary yellow in the span of moments.

"Calm down Nymphadora." Her mother chided her as she put a hand on her arm, "You're being rude."

"How… how did she do that?" Petunia asked. She knew changing your appearance with magic was possible, but what she had just seen was way more than that.

"Our daughter is a metamorphmagus." Ted explained, "She can change everything about her body at will. Hair colour, eye colour, even her physical build to a large extent."

"I can imagine that would be quite handy for a law officer." Vernon said, trying very hard not to think of what _else_ her power could be used for. Probably why the girl didn't like her suggestive name. Though why did she feel the need to dress like _that_ if that's the case?

"So would wandless magic," Remus added, "which I could try and help with. Assuming all goes well tonight and Petunia agrees." He glanced over at his employer.

"You want to see if she can feel the ward and use that to help her like Tina and Hermione?" The squib asked.

"Yes ma'am, though I think it would be best if she spent a week or so completely isolated from magic first. Professor Flitwick has the right idea there with his summer seminar."

"Wait," the metamorphmagus said, "Flitwick is starting a wandless magic seminar _this _summer? No fair!"

The group spent another hour talking and eating. Mostly about wandless magic and the whys and hows of learning how to start it. After the explanation was given, the two healers seemed to understand the mechanics pretty easily, and explained it in greater detail for their daughter and Remus. Witches and Wizards developed a 'magical tolerance' over time that prevented them from getting a spook or a jolt whenever they passed from one ward to another. Andromeda was surprised that no one had thought of that before, but then realized that wizards probably did and they just wouldn't be the type of wizards that could publish it in Britain. No pureblood, not even she, would cut themselves off from magic enough to not have that high magical tolerance. Even Nymphadora was raised in-and-out of magical households often enough to have a tolerance of her own, despite the Tonks' residence having the minimum of wards placed on it.

After dinner, and extracting a promise from Remus to write her later about training, Nymphadora went up to her room to study for the opening exam for the auror academy, leaving the rest to begin speaking of more weighty topics.

"So, may I ask why you want me to be Harry's proxy in the first place? I've only been working part time at St. Mungo's, so I have the time just… why me?" Andromeda finally asked once the five had made their way to the sitting room with a pot of tea for the evening.

"Has Remus told you about the state of things in the House?" Petunia asked, earning negative response that sent her and Vernon into a brief explanation of how Harry came to be living with them, followed by a rundown of what they learned from Gringotts concerning his finances.

"The main reason we're asking you about this though," Remus concluded once the Dursleys were done explaining, "is that Harry just doesn't want Amos Diggory representing him anymore." Remus gestured at himself, "I'm sure you know why _I_ have an interest in that, but Harry is very much like his parents, especially his mother, with regards to wizard-creature relations. We exchanged a few letters about some of the laws that Diggory has supported and Harry pressed for us to find someone else, hopefully someone willing to start attempting to backpedal those laws."

"You know that will send a strong message in the Wizengamot." Andromeda answered, "The Diggory family is not as important as the Potters, but they are traditionally seen as being on the same side. Replacing him as proxy and then working to undo what he'd done could end in an investigation against his family due to Harry's situation." She frowned, "Replacing him with _me_, due to my own family reputation, could do even more harm to him."

"If Dudley wasn't friends with Mister Diggory's son, I wouldn't honestly care." Petunia said, "But if you accept and that happens then feel free to throw Albus Dumbledore under the bus, as it were. I'm sure Harry would agree, you could make an official statement that Harry doesn't hold Mister Diggory culpable. It was completely a failure of communication caused by Dumbledore, who neglected his duties while he was Harry's magical guardian."

"That should work," Ted mused, "and hopefully pull any backlash away from the Diggory family. I understand why you don't want him on the Potter seat, but he's not actually a bad man himself. But it doesn't answer why you chose my wife first."

"There's one other thing, that means it _has_ to be you." Remus added, "We aren't asking you to just be Harry's proxy anymore. Since you are blood related to the Potters through Dorea Black, we would like to ask you to take the mantle of Regent of House Potter. That way you can handle political matters for the House outside of the Wizengamot Chambers as well."

Andromeda was shocked at that, Regents were almost never as distantly related to the Heir as she was to Harry, "Why?"

And so Remus and Petunia explained about Temperance Smith _nee_ Burke, and how her father had tried to take her children from her. The former Black remembered Temperance from her time in Hogwarts as a sweet girl who loved painting and keeping things tidy. Her heart ached for what the poor woman had gone through, and she was the first to explain to the Dursleys how magical guardianship worked in this case. Until that point it hadn't dawned on those raised outside the magical world that Temperance would have to be dead for her father to reinstate her underage children into the family without first welcoming _her_ back. That he never had any intention of doing that meant that he was likely planning to arrange her death so that he could take sole guardianship of the children. Andromeda also agreed that, having met the man, he most certainly would have beaten or possibly killed his half-blood grandchildren if given the opportunity due to his and his family's views on blood purity.

The quintet spent another half-hour discussing various points that Andromeda would need to know if she accepted Regency. Beyond Temperance and her family, who they wanted to make Wards of the House, she would also need to start talking to some of the other Light families and see how hard rolling back the restrictions and sanctions on werewolves and other less-dangerous magical creatures, particularly goblins, would be.

About eight o'clock, as the group was enjoying a last cup of tea before splitting up for the night, a dinging sound rang from the hearth in the room, which lit itself and flared in green fire before dying into smoldering ashes. A woman's face formed from the ashes and spoke with Professor Mcgonagall's very troubled voice, "Andromeda? Mrs. Tonks? Are you there?"

"Yes, I'm here. What's wrong professor?" The woman answered, confused, as she stepped into the face's line of sight.

"Are the Dursleys still there?" Mcgonagall asked, her voice fraught with worry, "Their neighbors told me they were going to meet with you tonight for something."

"We're here Minerva, what's going on?" Petunia asked as she followed her host's example and stood directly in front of the fire. Andromeda, for her part, was shocked at how familiar Petunia seemed to be with Professor Mcgonagall.

"There's been an attack at the school. A troll got through the wards somehow while the feast was going on. One of the students was missing when the announcement to evacuate to the dorms went out and your son decided to go find and warn him, picking up Mister Potter and Miss Granger along the way. Harry is in the hospital wing at the moment, I think you should be here for him ma'am."

"Oh my god! Is he alright?" Petunia was freaking out at this point, _what is a troll?_ She thought to herself, as Andromeda hurried to get her floo powder.

"He'll be alright, but he's very shaken up. So are the other students involved, though not as much so in the physical sense. When you're ready to come through, come to 'Hogwarts Transfiguration Office', the password is 'Catnip'."

"Here's the floo powder." Andromeda said, offering the clay pot full of glittering dust, "You should go Petunia."

"I think we should go with her ma'am." Remus added, "I need to be there because Dumbledore will be, but Madame Pompfrey might appreciate someone to help her with the children after something like this. If Harry is able, you can take this opportunity to meet him as well."

Agreeing with his assessment, the two women preceded him through the floo.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**Thirty Minutes Earlier**

"Poppy," Professor Mcgonagall whispered to the matron as they watched Harry Potter lying on the hospital bed, "I need you to keep absolutely everyone out of here until I return. That includes the headmaster."

"I understand, but you do know he's waiting outside don't you?" The woman returned.

"Yes," Mcgonagall lamented as she made to leave, "he's probably going to argue with me the whole way to my office. But I fear if we don't take this incident seriously enough then those three might be withdrawn from Hogwarts. I know for a fact that they have the means, and ability, to learn magic elsewhere if that were the case."

She was right, Albus argued with her the entire way to her office (after being told he couldn't enter the Hospital Wing) that there was no need to be so hasty in contacting guardians over something that would be fine by the next afternoon. But Minerva Mcgonagall held her ground, one of the first times she could ever remember directly opposing her mentor with more than lip service in her entire life.

"Ms. Acacia needs to know what happened here tonight so that she can make an informed decision about her wards' futures." She huffed as the turned to face the headmaster at the door to her office, "She deserves better than learning from a note, she needs to know that that boy is alright. Magical guardians may request to visit their wards at any time so long as it does not disrupt classes, she deserves the chance to check on him."

Albus frowned, the chance to finally meet the elusive Ms. Acacia was hard to pass up. But at the same time, he was worried that if she came to the school while Harry was in the state he was in now she might pull him out immediately. With a Steward allowing him access to his family vaults, and he still needed to find out who that was, Harry could learn magic from tutors along with his cousin and the Granger girl. That would be a disaster for Magical Britain!

"Alright Minerva," He relented, "but please bring Ms. Acacia by my office afterwards. I would like to meet with her, and hopefully try and clear the air between us a little."

"Only if you can tell me how the bloody troll got through the wards by the time I get back." She said, exacerbated, as she closed her door behind her, separating them. She couldn't apparate through the Hogwarts wards, and the Dursleys did not have a floo connection in their home, so her first destination was the Leaky Cauldron before rushing out the back door to reach the apparition point.

Despite no lights being left on, the professor knocked on the Dursleys' door and rang the bell several times before deciding that they weren't home. Due to her stress, she was at a loss for what to do until she remembered that the Polkiss family lived only a few doors down. Quickly transfiguring her robes into an outfit similar to one that she'd seen Petunia wearing before, she hurried over to the Polkiss's, praying to Merlin that their religion kept them from being avid Trick-or-Treaters.

They weren't, as she found out when Mister Polkiss, Timothy, opened the door. Seeing Tina peeking around the corner and watching them, Minerva kept her explanation short to avoid worrying the girl. It took a minute of convincing to get them to tell her that the Durlseys were visiting the Tonks family, much to the transfiguration professor's shock. Mister Polkiss followed her back outside as she left, and she was able to explain that Harry had been injured in an accident after dinner. With a glance around to ensure there was no one else on the street, apparently Privet Drive wasn't big on trick-or-treating, and a request to inform the Dursleys that she was looking for them if they got home before she found them, she apparated back to the Leaky Cauldron so that she could return to her office. She didn't know where the Tonks lived, but she knew they had a floo connection.

"Daddy, is something wrong?" Tina asked when her father walked back inside.

Timothy Polkiss frowned and considered not answering at all before he realized that would only make her worry more, "Harry got hurt today, sweetie. The professor said he found out another student was in danger and went to go help them and got hurt doing so. But don't worry too much dear," He added to placate his child, "she didn't sound like it was too bad. Just enough to bring Petunia up there."

Upon arriving back in her office, Minerva ran to her deck and pulled out her list of floo addresses. She had a small list of healers that she kept in case anything happened to leave Poppy indisposed. Finding the Tonks took longer than planned, since she'd apparently put them under 'A' for 'Andromeda' instead of 'T' in her alphabetized list by mistake.

Finding the address and taking a handful of floo powder, the professor activated her fireplace and pushed her face into the floo, "Andromeda? Mrs. Tonks? Are you there?"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Please come with me," Minerva Mcgonagall said as the three people in front of her brushed the ash off their clothes, "my office is a few levels above the Hospital Wing."

With the professor guiding them through the castle, Petunia had to do her best not to gawk as they went. Paintings that moved freely and spoke, staircases that randomly moved direction throughout the school, and _ghosts!_ It was all the squib could do to keep from screaming when a ghostly troubadour with spectral bagpipes floated through walls of the hall they were walking in. Her need to see Harry kept her going through it though.

"The ghosts are currently helping patrol the halls and keep students in their dorms." Mcgonagall offered by way of explanation.

"About that," Petunia asked, "what is a troll? Could you describe it for me?"

"Three meters tall, a half-ton of muscle, and as brainless as it is magic resistant." Remus offered, "How in Merlin's name did it get inside the school in the first place?"

"The headmaster should be investigating that," Minerva replied, "he wants to meet with you as well, Petunia, but I told him I wouldn't introduce you unless he could tell me how this happened. I think I know, and if I'm right I'll be dragging him over the coals for it."

Petunia was almost as pale as the ghosts as the two spoke, "And you're sure that they're alright? Harry and Dudley and Hermione?"

"Mister Dursley is completely fine except for some minor cuts, just like the student they saved from the troll. Miss Granger has some burns on her hand that I hadn't received an explanation for when I left to get you. Mister Potter is…" Mcgonagall glanced at the younger woman, "he'll be alright. He'll probably be able to leave the Hospital Wing tomorrow afternoon. That's what you need to remember."

"What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?" Petunia hissed at her.

"Anything I say would make it seem worse than reality, and when I told Hermione and Dudley that I was going to try and get you here they insisted on waiting until then to tell the story of what exactly happened." Mcgonagall sighed, "They didn't want to go over it twice."

"What about Harry?" Petunia and Remus asked at almost the same time.

"Mister Potter was unconscious when I left, but Poppy was getting ready to wake him for a check-up as I was leaving." The transfiguration professor replied.

When they reached the Hospital Wing Minerva was surprised to find a privacy ward on the main doors, something must have changed while she was out. The ward was keyed to her, so a simple tap of her wand dispelled it and allowed the four entrance into the Wing.

Once inside, Petunia didn't care that she saw Albus Dumbledore standing over an unconscious Harry casting spells that swirled in a golden halo around them. She didn't notice the look of strained concentration on his face, nor the worry that seemed to be pouring off of both Dudley and Hermione, as well as a redhead she didn't recognize and the woman who was obviously the hospital matron. The only thing she could focus on was Harry, unconscious and laying on top of the bed sheets, with both of his legs seemingly _deflated_. As though all the bones below his pelvis were simply _gone_. Not only that, his body seemed to be one giant bruise that began at his chest and went all the way down. She remembered, somewhere in a far off, rational, corner of her brain, that they could grow his leg bones back; but that small corner was not the one in charge at that moment.

Before she could rush to her nephew's side, Andromeda and Remus grabbed her and held her back, "Ma'am, whatever Albus is doing, we shouldn't stop it." Andromeda insisted, "It could hurt Harry to interfere."

While the two of them worked to get the now borderline-hysterical Petunia under control, Minerva went over to Madame Pomfrey for an explanation, "What is happening? He wasn't supposed to be allowed in the room."

"Mister Potter's body rejected the skele-gro and began reacting poorly to it." Poppy answered, "Probably because his core was almost completely drained out. I didn't think to check that before administering the potion. I put him under a sleeping spell that will delay the effects, meanwhile Albus is attempting to open what he called a 'temporary channel' in the bond between Mister Potter and his familiar." She indicated a medical table on the other side of Harry that they hadn't noticed on first entering. Najash was situated on it, in the middle of a runic circle that had been carved directly into the metal.

"He hopes," the matron continued, "that this will give Mister Potter enough of a boost to accept the potion, otherwise I don't know what we're going to do here. We may have to move him to St. Mungo's. His leg muscles will be in danger if he spends too long boneless and without treatment."

"Why did you remove his bones already then?" Petunia asked as Dudley made his way to her and gave her a hug.

"Mum," Dudley said, trying to be strong for her and not cry, "Harry's legs were totally crushed. She had to or it would have been worse, they were turning colours."

Two minutes later, the golden glow ebbed and Headmaster Dumbledore stumbled backwards, falling into a chair that Mcgonagal hastily conjured for him. Najash slowly slithered from the table onto Harry's chest before curling up and looking at the newcomers with interest.

Glancing over once he realized that there were more than just the students present, Albus almost passed out when he saw who it was. Remus he understood, it was obvious now, in hindsight, that 'family troubles' meant _Potter_ family troubles if he was here now. Andromeda Tonks was a mystery, but Petunia Dursley should not have been able to be here at all. Muggles were able to get through the Hogwarts wards only with the help of a special charm that the Headmaster alone could create. He had _never _made one of those charms. To his knowledge, one hadn't been made in about fifty years, not since the last time a student had died while attending. But if he hadn't made her a charm, and she was here anyways, then there was only one explanation that would fit.

Petunia Dursley wasn't a muggle. If she wasn't a muggle, and obviously wasn't a witch, then the only explanation was that she was a squib. But if she was a squib…

Albus recalled something from the end of the war, something he hadn't deemed important or relevant until this very moment. When Arrabella's husband had died in a Death Eater attack she had taken to using a fake name to avoid immediately being recognized. If he recalled correctly she'd gone by the last name "Newton" for a couple years to hide from people that might have been after revenge for something her husband had done during the war.

While he was pondering, Petunia and Lupin stepped over to either side of Harry's bed to verify for themselves that he was still breathing. Najash tensed up and rose to strike at Remus until Petunia pet the snake on the head and he seemed to accept the new wizard's presence. The werewolf eyed the serpent a bit apprehensively while Poppy told Andromeda Tonks and Minerva that she would be waking Harry up soon to verify that the procedure had worked and reactivate the potion to restore his legs.

Deciding to be the one to initiate the inevitable conversation, Albus Dumbledore cleared his throat and asked out loud, "Ms. Acacia, I presume?"


	17. Chapter 16: The Troll Incident

The Troll Incident

Petunia glared at the headmaster, her ire barely held in check. As far as she was concerned, regardless of what his explanation was, this was Albus Dumbledore's fault. The matron walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Ma'am," The matron said politely as she leaned over to observe Harry, "I'm Poppy Pomfrey, the Hospital Matron. I need to wake Mister Potter up for a moment to verify that the procedure worked. As I said, if it did not then he'll have to be transferred to St. Mungo's." Dumbldore winced at her repetition of that threat.

Petunia and Remus each took a step back as Pomfrey cast a spell that caused Harry to gently return to consciousness. Taking note that Hermione seemed on the verge of tears, Petunia gestured for her to join them near Harry's bedside. She noticed that the young girl's right hand was bandaged up, but didn't say anything about it yet. In that time, Harry's eyes had fluttered open and he tried to turn his head to face Petunia and Hermione, but found he couldn't move anything.

Seeing his distress, Pomfrey spoke before he could become agitated, "Mister Potter, you are still attached to the bed with sticking charms, you can't move right now. How do you feel?"

"Alright I guess. Aunt Petunia? Is that you?" Pomfrey nodded and began casting diagnostic charms. Harry's voice was weak, but not as faint as it was before. A few spells confirmed that his core was stabilized properly.

"Can you feel anything odd? Itching anywhere?" The matron pressed.

"Uh, my legs itch, I think… it feels weird. But it doesn't hurt, I guess" He replied, much clearer.

"Good, that's the Skele-gro working. You have about an hour before I'll need to give you a Sleeping Draught to sleep through the process."

_Skele-gro?_ Harry pondered. _Wait,_ the reason why he was in the hospital came back to him as his eyes moved back to focus on his aunt, "Aunt Petunia! I'm gonna be okay, it's not as bad as it looks."

Petunia took a finger and gently pushed it against Harry's mouth to shush him, speaking softly to calm him down, "It's alright Harry. Apparently you have an hour to tell me all about it, so there's no reason to rush." She smiled at him and kissed his forehead before turning back to the headmaster, her voice becoming much harsher, "But I like hearing stories from the beginning, and the beginning of this one is how a troll found its way into the school. I was led to believe this was the safest place in the world."

"Yes, well…" Dumbledore stumbled over his words for a moment as he tried to answer, "I did discover how the troll got through the wards. Earlier in the year a professor brought one in for a special class," Mcgonagall raised her eyebrow at that, "and apparently he failed to reset the ward properly after he was done. This one wandered in along the same path the first one was brought."

"Ridiculous! Special class in _what_?" Hermione hissed from Petunia's side, "I bet there's a troll under that trapdoor!"

"What?" Petunia asked as she tightened her hold on Hermione, "What trapdoor?"

Hermione looked apologetically at Harry, who smiled to try and communicate that it was alright, "Last month Harry tried breaking into the third floor, where the headmaster said we weren't allowed." Petunia gasped and glanced at Harry before squeezing Hermoine's arm to bid her to continue, "There's a giant cerberus in the room, but Harry said it was standing on a trapdoor."

"A cerberus, are you kidding me?" The redheaded boy asked from behind them where he was sitting up on his bed.

"Why am I only hearing about this now?" Petunia asked, keeping any hint of anger out of her voice as she locked eyes with Hermione.

"Harry didn't want you to be mad. It was the day he got his Nimbus." The brown-haired girl hesitantly answered, "Plus, he promised he wouldn't go back after the dog scared him half to death."

"I'm really sorry-" Harry began, only for Petunia to shake her head to silence him.

"Harry, it's alright." She chided, "So, headmaster. Giant dogs guarding trapdoors aside, how is this negligent professor being punished?"

"I have placed him on probation and he will be fired at the end of the year, but it's not possible to replace him at this time, so I can't exactly fire him right now." Dumbledore responded.

Before Petunia could go on a tirade, Minerva stepped in an explained, "If he were fired then no one would replace him and a core class would become a self study for lower years. Especially this early in the year, no one would risk it." The squib looked at her incredulously so she continued, "No Defense professor has lasted more than one school year since before your sister attended here. Though there's no proof, many students, and even some prominent adults in our society, believe the position is somehow cursed."

"I can confirm that that is the case. The belief, I mean." Remus added, "Though the whole 'trying to get fired' thing is new, James and I speculated about the supposed curse while we were still in school as well. We had seven years and seven Defense instructors."

"Quirell confided to me that he hoped the hole in the wards would be found by Christmas. Then he would be fired at the end of the year for negligence and the supposed curse wouldn't remove him in a more violent manner." Dumbledore confirmed. "It was obviously his belief that no troll would be intelligent enough to find its way into the castle alone. Clearly this one was smarter than average. Also, so you're aware, he was one of only two to offer their services for the position at all this year, which is how I know that replacing him would be nearly impossible."

"That doesn't instill much confidence, headmaster." Petunia deadpanned while Harry, Dudley, and Hermione were gawking at the man, "Why should I trust my children to a place like that? The man's negligence has Harry in the hospital and put the lives of four children in danger!"

"Usually the defense professor suffers some accident at the end of the year," Mcgonagall added, "or some compromising information about their past comes out that forces them to leave. I've never heard of a student being injured like this due to the supposed curse, but arranging for themselves to be fired isn't unheard of."

"We're wasting time, I suppose. The hole is closed I presume." The squib huffed, she was beginning to remember that magicals tended to lack common sense, "Why don't you kids tell us what happened. How did you come to be saving a missing student to get yourselves in this mess in the first place?" She glanced back at the redheaded boy whose name she still hadn't asked, though she was pretty sure she knew based on his appearance, "I assume that was you? Ronald Weasley, yes? Slytherin?"

The boy nodded, "Yeah that's me." He glanced away in shame after the admission.

"When the teachers sent us all to our dorms I remembered that he had been… uh… sick today." Dudley said, stumbling over an acceptable lie to cover for Ron, "He'd been in a bathroom since lunch today, so I went to warn him since I'd heard he was on the first floor and that was on the way to my dorm anyways. But I couldn't remember where the bathroom was, so I ran to the kitchen to get Harry since he knows where _everything_ is."

Petunia thought for a moment before looking back to Ronald, something about the way Dudley explained the boy's presence bothered her, "It sounds like you should start, then let the others pick up where they come in. How does that sound? Would you begin with why you stayed in the bathroom if you were that sick for an entire afternoon instead of coming here?"

Ron fought to keep the embarrassment off his face, "That started in Defense class today before lunch, I have that class with Harry and Hermione so they can help me with what happened there… I spent the end of that class with a headache."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Ron sighed as he got to his seat, barely making it in time since he spent too long eating breakfast again, and glanced around to make sure he wasn't going to get in trouble with Professor Quirrell. Nott and Zabini scoffed at him as he sat down, but Ron did his best to ignore them. He sat on the border between Slytherin and Gryffindor students. there was still a visible gap between the two groups, but Harry and Hermione's positions beside him, inside the gap, kept him from worrying. At least he had friends now, and it certainly helped that they were two of the top students in class. Harry was the best and fastest at defensive spells, picking up a lot of them on the first try, and Hermione was no slouch either. Thankfully they couldn't do the spells wandlessly, Hermione had said she couldn't seem to get almost anything except simple charms to work. Ron wasn't sure he could bear to be _that_ far behind them.

The Slytherin Weasley wasn't alone in groaning when Quirrell informed the first years that they would be practicing their _Flipendo_ spells against each other for that class, four groups of two at a time. The jinx just bumped a person back like they'd been pushed, but it was annoying to constantly be knocked to your bum on the hard floor if you couldn't move out of the way. Sure they were allowed to swat the spells away with their wands if they could, since Flipendo posed no risk to their wands even with their minimal practice, but Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass were the only ones who could do that reliably. Ron had heard that they'd been given a little training before school so they could protect themselves if they needed to. They didn't need it, he thought. What with Greengrass's cold personality having done enough to scare off anyone that thought they could take advantage of her for being a girl, and Davis never being far from her friend's side.

After rotating through a few partners Ron found himself paired against Theordore Nott of all people. He grumbled at his poor luck as he watched Harry, an isle over, repeatedly trounce Malfoy, who insisted on trying to swat at the incoming spells every chance he got trying to make it work. When the next person attempted to have Malfoy move, the blonde ponce threatened them and turned back to face Potter.

"Pay attention, Weasel. There's no point in beating you if you aren't even facing the right way!" Nott called to him from across the dueling isle.

Squaring up to face the boy, Ron brandished his wand and the two began trading knockback jinxes. He tried his best to dodge left and right of the incoming blue spells, and even managed to succeed at it the first few times as he returned fire, but it didn't matter as the other boy's spellcasting was much faster than his own. Sending out only two spells before being knocked back by the fourth incoming one, Ron found himself knocked a bit _too_ far back, tripping over the edge of the isle and falling an extra couple feet off the platform to land hard on the stone floor.

"Idiot." Nott jeered from the isle as he approached the other side. Ron slowly got up, holding his head where he'd cracked it against the floor. It wasn't bleeding, but it really hurt!

"You're worthless without Potter or his mudbloods, a blood-traitor just like your-" Nott didn't get to finish his taunting as a bright blue spell smacked into him from the side, knocking him clean off the platform.

"Sorry, missed cast." Harry called from the next isle over as he sidestepped a spell from Malfoy, causing the other boy's already flushed face to get even redder in anger.

"Potter! Watch where you're-"

"Potter! _I'm _your oppon-"

"P-p-potter!" The sound of the professor silenced the two Slytherins, "If you w-want to test yourself ag-gainst Mister Nott, do it officially. You t-t-two are the top cast-t-ters in class anyways, it could be a good l-l-l-lesson for the others."

The professor waved all the dueling pairs off the isles and had Harry and Nott square up. Ron stood with the Gryffindors, seeing as the half of Slytherin that weren't glued to the two wizards on the dueling platform were glaring at _him_ for, in their eyes, causing this.

"Flipendos… or s-similar, if you know them." Quirell said as he took a position between the students, "Begin."

Both started out fast and furious, casting as swiftly as they could while still keeping an eye on the incoming spells. Knockback jinxes were about a foot in diameter and the platform was five feet wide, which left room for error. Harry quickly fell into a rhythm, dodging around incoming spells in the same headspace he used to get into to dodge opposing players while running the ball in games back home. This rhythm was all that kept him from getting hit in the chest with a spell that was definitely _not_ Flipendo, it was twice as fast as the knockback spells and a sickly yellow in colour. Unfortunately, Harry wasn't able to dodge completely and it struck him in the left arm with the feeling of being punched, _hard_. Harry gasped and accidentally dropped his wand as he clutched his arm, continuing to move out of the few remaining jinxes still incoming. He would need to check and make sure there wasn't an actual bruise there in a moment.

"That all you got, Potter?" Nott called from the other side, "Pitiful. How did someone like _you_ ever defeat the Dark Lord?"

Harry stood tall again as he faced Nott down, lifting his empty wand hand he hoped this would finally work.

"Flipendo!" He shouted angrily as he made a 'be gone' motion with his wrist. A foot wide ball of blue energy sailed from his hand towards Nott, who barely managed to dodge out of the way in his shock. Harry continued his assault, repeating the incantation over and over as he flicked his wrist up and down far faster than he could 'spin and push' his wand.

Eventually Nott grew too tired to dodge and shouted, 'Protego,' forming a disk of translucent energy directly in front of him that stopped Harry's spells in their tracks. Harry kept casting, but didn't think he was going to win like this. He was pretty sure that, even if the first "other spell" was somehow allowed by the professor's vague rules, that this shield was _not_. Hermione had found that one in the very back of this year's Defense textbook so Harry was impressed that Nott could even cast it, but he still felt that Quirell should have called the fight when he did.

Deciding that the professor was going to make them keep going until one of them was knocked down, Harry tried speeding up his casting to break the shield. First he silently flicked his wrist while imagining the feeling of knocking down the arrogant git in front of him, it worked and the spells kept flying. After a few silent casts Harry held out his hand and gripped the feeling of pushing Nott away as hard as he could. His spells began shooting out of his palm as fast as he could think to '_push_' again, and the other boy's shield sputtered out against the onslaught in under fifteen seconds. The moment it broke, Harry stopped. But it was a bit too late for that as Nott was struck not once, not twice, but four times by already flying knockback spells, launching him ten feet off the platform and through the dueling ward, which was only meant to protect against spells, to crash into Crabbe and Goyle who were unlucky enough to be standing in the way.

"Five points for Gryf-f-findor." Quirell stated as he walked over to check on Theodore Nott, "As for you Mister N-n-nott. You raised the stakes with a sh-shield charm. You should have been p-p-prepared for the conseq-q-quences and f-f-followed up with something."

With only ten minutes left in the class anyways, Quirell dismissed them early after assigning a half-foot essay on things they could think of that Harry or Theo could have done to end the duel faster. As they returned to their desks Ron had to chase away Blaise Zabini from going through his bookbag.

"Just seeing if it was as old and ratty as I thought it was." The boy jeered as he rejoined Nott, Millicent Bulstrode, and Janice Runcorn.

Ron shook his head as he grabbed his bag and rushed out. Slytherin first years had a free period before lunch on Thursdays, which was terrible for the redhead since it meant he still had to wait to eat again. Thankfully, he'd taken to preparing for Thursdays by grabbing a couple extra muffins and stuffing them in his bag to munch on after DADA.

Immediately after finishing the first muffin Ron knew something was wrong, his stomach gurgled and he ran for the nearest bathroom he could find to vacate his bowels only to keep throwing up almost continuously for the next hour. It didn't take him long to know when this probably happened, apparently he _didn't_ stop Zabini from doing whatever he was doing to his bag. Since he'd taken in with Harry's group, Malfoy and his two muscle men had left him pretty much alone, but the other two boys in his year had apparently taken that as a challenge to inflict as much misery on Ron as possible.

He wasn't sure how much more of this he could handle. He wasn't bothered while he was near the Gryffindors, but the minute he was alone he still tended to be hexed whenever he wasn't looking. Harry and Dudley somehow had a tendency to "know" when he was in real trouble and come to his aid, but that was starting to grate on him too. Especially since he had no idea how they were doing it.

Ron felt too miserable to go to lunch when the time came around. He was convinced his stomach would just rebel again and he'd embarrass himself. After lunch he convinced himself that flying on a sick, empty stomach was a bad idea; and after _that _skipping charms to continue feeling sorry for himself just seemed like the natural thing to do. Unfortunately, all that wallowing had left him truly wondering if maybe he would just be better off going home. He still hadn't gotten anything from his mum after the howler in the first week except his own letters, unopened, and he was pretty sure she was keeping the letters he sent from his dad too. The only time he'd gotten a reply from his father had been when he sent one with Percy's weekly report to the family, and that was just to say 'keep doing well' since Ron had chickened out and not written about his problems where Percy might read them.

As dinner was nearing its end Ron's stomach finally won out against his misery, and he got up to see if he could grab something before the Hall was cleared. While he was washing his hands, he heard a _crash _behind him as a smell worse than anything he, himself, had caused that day assaulted his senses. He looked up at the mirror in front of him to see a full-grown troll smash the first stall in the bathroom…

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Petunia held her hand out to stop Ron as he became rather emotional in his retelling, "Professor Mcgonagall, is that kind of systemic bullying truly allowed here?"

"Not exactly," the witch replied, "but with magic it is often extraordinarily difficult to prove who did something. If the perpetrator can actually be found then punishments are handed out. But, unless someone is hurt it's sometimes hard to justify the difficulty in hunting them down when it isn't obvious. I shall be addressing Severus about his students soon."

Petunia frowned at that before glancing over to Remus, his assertion that 'The Marauders' would play pranks on people to protect against bullying was making more sense now, "Well, I guess that explains why you were in the bathroom, but am I supposed to believe that your mother decided not to come after you almost died?" She looked over at Mcgonagall, "Or was she not informed?"

"I asked that no one tell her." Ron said, drawing the attention back to himself, "I didn't want to hear what she would say. She'd probably have congratulated the troll or something."

Petunia's heart broke at that statement, and she pulled the poor boy into a hug before she even realized what she was doing. Ron Weasley hugged her back and soon found himself crying as she held him tight and ran a hand through his hair, just like his own mum would whenever he got hurt back home. Petunia looked over at Remus, who nodded in understanding. The Weasley family needed a talking-to.

Composing herself because she remembered that Harry was on a timer, Petunia set Ron back down onto one of the beds once he'd finished crying and turned back to her wards, leaving the boy in the Matron's care again, "Well, that explains that, but Dudley said that you weren't at dinner either Harry, why not?"

This time it was Harry's turn to become emotional, "They were celebrating…" Petunia's eyebrow raised a bit as she processed that before understanding, "It was basically a party. I… I didn't want that… not today."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I can't do this after all, I need to go." Harry whispered as he and Hermione took in the massively overblown Halloween decorations set up in the Great Hall. There were even live bats flying around the enchanted ceiling! Over at the Gryffindor table the Weasley twins were leading several others in singing and generally carrying on.

"It's alright Harry. Let's just go to the kitchens, okay?" Hermione sought out Dudley and made eye contact, pointing down with her free hand to hopefully tell him where they were going.

The two slowly made their way downstairs, avoiding anyone heading back up by stepping through a secret passage that Hermione had no idea how Harry knew about. By the time they made it to the kitchen, she had resolved to finally ask him how he seemed to know where things were in the castle. Originally she'd assumed he just asked the elves, and she'd even done that sometimes herself, but there was no way he'd had time to quiz them on the dozen or so secret shortcuts in the school she'd seen him use so far.

The elves were ecstatic when they saw Harry Potter joining them for Halloween dinner, and he almost had to shout to get them to hear him say that they only wanted some light food. Nothing too heavy like they were having upstairs if possible. A little let down that Harry wasn't celebrating, but understanding that he might prefer quiet, the elves set up a table for the pair with some nice stew which Harry and Hermione said was perfect.

"I'm still not sure about this house elf thing Harry." Hermione huffed as they sat down, "It just feels wrong to me. Especially since there's nothing in any books in the library besides vague mentions of how useful they are."

"Maybe you should just ask them?" Harry asked. Hermione had been so caught up in finding a book on elves that he hadn't mentioned this before. Secretly he was hoping she would come up with it on her own. Why was she so obsessed with finding a book when a firsthand source was right here?

Hermione stared at Harry with her mouth open for several seconds before he reached over and closed it for her, chuckling as he did. After waving her away the girl hugged him before hopping up to go talk to an elf that looked to be less busy than the others. A little while after she did, Harry flexed his fingers, carefully floating his spoon out of his bowl and to his lips while spilling on the napkin he held under it. He'd been trying to work on being more steady and precise with his levitation, easily his favorite bit of wandless magic, by eating snacks in private using it. Smaller things were harder to keep steady in the air than bigger or heavier ones, it turned out. He didn't get that much time to practise because the three had promised their friends they'd avoid showing off with wandless spells all the time, since Professor Flitwick had confirmed that they wouldn't be able to teach it before the summer.

After a few failed attempts to keep his stew in the spoon while moving it fast enough for it not to be cold, Harry gave up and picked up the spoon to eat normally. In the absence of something to concentrate on, his day long melancholy threatened to come back. But that was about the same time that Hermione returned from her chat with the elves.

When she sat down she immediately began explaining what she'd learned, hoping that learning something new and interesting would get his mind off of why he was sad today. According to the elf she had talked to, Wopny, elves weren't capable of producing magic on their own. Instead they get it directly from whoever they are bonded to. The only exception being for places with a huge amount of magic, like Hogwarts, where they can bond directly to the location. The service they performed was their side of the magic bond that literally kept them alive. Because of that, they were usually quite happy to do anything their masters asked of them.

One thing she did learn that appalled her was that there were apparently no laws protecting an elf from their masters if they were cruel, which many dark families were. Several Hogwarts house elves had been abused by their masters and freed when they got bored of it or died in the war. The elves came here because families don't usually want "damaged goods." Harry had her make a note to mention it to Mrs. Tonks when the time came. That led Harry into a new funk about his family, remembering how he might have known Mister Lupin growing up if Amos Diggory hadn't been so anti-werewolf.

After a few minutes of companionable silence, Hermione tried to start a new conversation.

"Could you help me with the Flipendo spell?" She asked, "I want to be able to cast it wandlessly like you did against Nott, and you look like you need something to keep your mind busy."

Harry wasn't sure he liked what he'd learned about wandless defensive magic from that class, he didn't want to be in the habit of _wanting_ to potentially hurt someone like he did with Nott earlier today. That was, as he'd discovered, the big difference between wandless and wanded magic once you "got" the former; the intent behind your spells had to be much much stronger without a focus to cast them through.

"Or you could tell me how you know where all those secret passages are?" Hermione offered hopefully, seeing Harry's discomfort at the former question.

Harry thought about that for a minute. He hadn't shown Hermione the Map yet, because he was worried that she would think it was purely against the rules and insist he shouldn't have it. But then again, she complained all the time about getting lost, or hallways seeming to change; and the Map self updated with the minor changes that happened throughout the castle.

Resolving to make sure the Map was well hidden if she didn't like it, Harry pulled out the blank parchment and unfolded it on the table in front of them, "This was made by my dad and Mister Lupin." He explained as he reverently touched his wand to it, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"Harry! This is incredible!" Hermione squealed as she watched the Map draw itself in, "Oh my goodness!" She cried anew as it filled in the name tags for every person in the school.

"It's totally accurate, to the moment." Harry explained, "If you ask it for a shortcut then the map will draw a line from you to your destination. The first time it did I was confused when it sent me to a suit of armor at a dead end. Well, when you're near a hidden passage the Map shows you how to open it. I didn't even know it did all that when I was trying it out, I was just late to History one day and asked it for help. By the way, that passage behind the armor took me _up_ a flight of stairs, but ended three floors _below_ where I started. This castle is amazing!"

Hermione's dancing eyes convinced Harry that he wouldn't have to worry about her being a stickler for the rules in this case. Not when she had a chance to always be early to all of her classes!

The pair spent a bit of time checking out the features of the Map before Harry decided to answer Hermione's first question about wandless magic. Afterwards she agreed that it was probably something she wouldn't worry with too much. _Really_ wanting to make something levitate was pretty easy, she felt, but wanting to hurt someone, even just a push, to that same level wasn't something she wanted to train herself to do.

As the two were preparing to leave a group of elves rushed over to them and told them they needed to sit back down.

"Hoggy-Warts has been invaded Mister Potter!" Lonny, the head elf, explained after popping in, "A troll in the lower levels! You musn't be leaving the kitchens until it be's safe! Other students be going to their dormy-tories."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"The elves wouldn't let you leave despite my order for students to evacuate to their dorms?" Dumbledore asked.

"They said they were allowed to defend the kitchen, but weren't allowed to protect the castle otherwise unless they were specifically told to." Hermione replied as she held Harry's hand, which Madame Pomfrey had unstuck to make him slightly more comfortable.

"I suppose that makes sense." The headmaster conceded.

"Sir?" Harry asked from his bed, "If the troll was in the dungeons why did you send everyone out of the Hall? Slytherin and Hufflepuff were in the same direction as the danger, particularly Slytherin."

"Ah, that would be because once I was actually aware that there was a problem the wards were able to alert me to the troll's location." The white-bearded wizard replied, "I knew that it wouldn't be directly in the path of any students going from the Hall to the Dorms, but unfortunately there is no ward that tells me if all the students are where they're supposed to be."

Harry was so glad in that moment that he'd decided to tell Hermione about his breakthrough in wandless magic earlier that night. When recounting what they did in the kitchens, the Map hadn't actually come up despite taking up most of their time. He had no intention of just offering it to the headmaster, though perhaps he should see if Mister Lupin could recreate it without the personality and give _that_ to the school for tracking students. Thankfully, Hermione seemed to get the memo as well when Harry didn't mention the Map as a way to keep up with wayward children.

"Not even I can demand a _perfect_ security system." Petunia relented, "At least there were plans in place if this sort of thing happened." Looking over at Dudley she continued, "So you come into this after the Headmaster sent the students to safety? You realized Ronald was missing and went to find him?"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Justin, tell the prefects where I'm going!" Dudley said as he broke off from the other Hufflepuffs on the first floor, one under the Great Hall.

He hurried along the corridor, racking his brain for where the boy's toilets were on this floor. It was so close to both the Hall, as well as the Hufflepuff Dorms, that he'd never actually used them that he could recall. As he ran he came to a stop in front of a familiar painting of a bowl of fruit, tickling the pear to turn it into a door handle, he stepped into the kitchens while praying that Harry was still there. He knew where everything was by now thanks to his dad's map.

A quick explanation to Harry and Hermione, and a slightly longer argument with Lonny the Elf, later, the trio were headed towards the toilets to warn Ron about the danger of the troll.

"What is that _smell?_" Dudley asked as they rounded a corner while holding his nose.

"I know you said Ron was sick, but this is a bit much." Hermione said as she gagged a bit and leaned on the wall for a moment to steady herself.

_Crash._ The sound of a door exploding off its hinges resounded through the corridor from around the very next corner, and the terrified shriek of a boy cornered by a troll came after it. The three wasted no time in charging down the hall, maybe they could lead the thing away and outrun it in the corridors. Skidding to a stop at the door to the destroyed bathroom, they saw the twelve foot tall behemoth raising a huge tree branch to smash the next stall in line, three were already cratered. Ron was huddled under the last sink, which had taken a glancing blow after the troll apparently swiped across the entire bar of sinks, but it was clear that he'd hurt his ankle somehow and wouldn't be able to escape easily.

Dudley reacted without thinking, running around behind the troll to get to Ron as he said, "Distract it" to the two he left at the door. The troll turned around, planning to smash the newcomer, but was startled when his wand gave off a sound like thunder (Dudley was so proud that he'd learned how to do that intentionally, Professor Flitwick had worked with him for a couple weeks on it). The troll turned slightly when it flinched, catching Harry and Hermione in its sights.

Harry immediately raised his hand to try and _Flipendo_ the troll, but it didn't work. Even though getting into the 'push this thing away from me' headspace wasn't difficult in the face of a twelve foot tall troll, the spell just wasn't strong enough to do anything to the magic-resistant monster.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Hermione called as she gestured with her wand and the tree branch jerked out of the troll's hand. It reached to grab the branch as she turned to Harry, "If we do it together we might could trip it, that'll get Dudley out." As she finished she gestured to where Dudley was supporting Ron and trying to sneak back around.

"Alright," Harry said as he clasped hands with Hermione and pointed his other hand, empty, at the beast quickly finding a mutual frequency with his best friend's magic. Hermione mirrored him, her wand back in her pocket. "Pick up the troll on three." Harry finished.

_What?_ Hermione's mind wasn't fast enough to question him out-loud. _They weren't going to try and knock it down with Flipendo? _She realized then that if they did, they would likely knock it at Dudley and Ron. _Oh no! There was no way they could actually do that! Could they?_

"Three!" Harry shouted, drawing her attention in time to cast the spell with him, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Several things happened when they cast the spell. The first being that Hermione noticed that it did absolutely nothing right away, which caused her to worry. But then there was a flare of magic from Harry, like he'd been holding back and suddenly decided to let loose all at once. That shocked her, as she had no idea that Harry had that much power to spare. 'That much' quickly became even more shocking to her as she felt her hand begin to burn from the heat of Harry's magic. It was all she could do to keep control of the magic that came coursing through her hand and as the troll took another step towards them she decided to just stop trying, trusting Harry not to hurt her. The magic poured through her, just like it was for Harry, and augmented her own power. But her hand stopped burning.

The result of both of them releasing all their magic at once upon the troll was instantaneous, it rose straight into the air, smashing its head into the ceiling with enough force to knock it out, and fell back down. Unfortunately, it's forward momentum wasn't arrested and it pitched over directly at the now exhausted Gryffindors. Using the last of his strength, Harry shoved Hermione out of the way just in time as the troll landed on his lower body. He screamed in pain as he felt the bones in his legs crumble under the weight of the creature, it felt like he had been run over by a _truck_.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Professor Sprout got there a couple minutes later and helped us get Harry out from under the troll." Dudley finished explaining, "Justin told a prefect where we were and they sent the professor."

"And that more or less led to everyone being here?" Petunia concluded for him, "I'm disappointed that this happened," _that was an understatement, _"but that doesn't change the fact that I'm very proud of the three of you."

"Yes," the headmaster added, "if I may, fifty points to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff for uncommon valor in the face of danger."

Petunia grimaced at that statement, she didn't particularly like the House Cup. It seemed to invite conflict more than competition from what Hermione had told her of how it worked.

"Also, Poppy, I think you should check to make sure Miss Granger's magic is not fluctuating as well." Dumbledore said as he continued ruminating over the story he'd just heard, "If she really channeled some of Mister Potter's magic through herself to power the spell then she might be more tired than she appears. Adrenaline and stress can keep you on your feet long after exhaustion should have sent you to bed."

The matron did just that, finding that Hermione's magic was severely depleted, and set out a few potions for her to take that would ease any restless sleep she might have as a result.

"Mister Dumbledore," The headmaster bristled when Petunia Dursley called him that, "Harry has about ten or fifteen more minutes before the matron said she needed to put him to sleep. I would like the chance to speak with my nephew, without you, and after he's out then we can have our long overdue little chat."

"Of course, of course," Dumbledore replied nervously as he got up, "I'll be in my office if you wouldn't mind bringing them by when you are done here Minerva?" The transfiguration professor nodded as her mentor walked out of the Hospital Wing.

Once the headmaster had left the room, Petunia broke down sobbing over Harry. Hermione and Dudley rubbed her back as she shuddered and cried, "I'm so glad you're okay." She finally said, "All of you."

Madame Pomfrey set up a privacy ward around the family while Petunia was in hysterics, "That's best kept private, I hope you understand." She said to Ron as she cast the ward, to which the Slytherin nodded kindly. He _did_ understand, he wished his own mum could have been here for him like that…

Giving Petunia a chance to regain her composure, Remus decided to introduce himself, "Hello Harry. I'm sorry we couldn't meet under better circumstances." He smiled wanly as he spoke.

"Mister Lupin?" the boy asked.

"If that's what you want to call me. When you were really little you used to call me 'Uncle Moony' though. Of course, you weren't quite articulate enough to say it right back then."

"Mister Potter, Harry… I'm Andromeda Tonks." The last woman said as she stepped away from Madam Pomfrey, "Are you aware of who I am?"

"Mist-er… _Uncle Moony_ said that you were like, distantly related to me or something?" Harry responded, the uncle in question grinned at the title, "He said you were someone I could trust to represent me on the… wizard court?"

"Your family asked me to be a little more than just your proxy on the Wizengamot." She began, "They asked me to be the Regent of your House. Basically the de-facto head of the family unless I step down or am replaced by you, the Heir. Something that is not easy to do before you come of age."

Harry tried hard to process that, but couldn't seem to answer a simple question. Turning back to Remus he asked, "Why?"

"The Smith family are worried that they will have to flee the country before James reaches schooling age to hide from Miss Temperance's father." The werewolf explained, "As Regent, Andromeda would be able to name the entire Smith family as wards of House Potter. That would keep her father from trying something underhanded to gain custody of the children."

"That's the primary reason." Petunia elaborated, "But a regent has more authority than a steward or proxy. Mrs. Tonks here could represent the Potter family to _other _families, not just in legislating but in general." As she spoke, Petunia jerked her head in the direction of the oblivious Ronald Weasley. "I have exchanged letters with her since late September, and Remus knows her and trusts her. I think this is the best thing to do."

Harry did his best to nod in understanding, "Do I have to sign something? How does this work?"

Andromeda laughed at how carefree and trusting the boy was, "I can go to Gringotts soon and get paperwork filed I suppose. There will be things for you to sign as well. If you want, someone could bring you and your cousin to Diagon Alley this weekend. I'm sure your uncle would love a chance to see you and know you're okay as well."

"We can mention that to the headmaster when we meet with him," Remus said before turning to Petunia, "assuming we are really doing that?"

"Yes." Harry's aunt nodded, "I don't think it can wait any longer now. I want to begin getting a few answers, and I want him to know that another incident like _this_ will see all three of them pulled out of Hogwarts faster than he can sneeze."

The adults spent a few more minutes talking with the children, generally making them feel more secure. Meanwhile, Andromeda asked Harry a few minor questions about things he may have wanted her to do as Regent. Werewolf rights she expected, house elf rights… not so much. But, in her opinion, it was still a noble, and long overdue, endeavor.

"Mister Potter doesn't have much longer before the skele-gro begins working in earnest." Madame Pomfrey said as she came over to the group, "He'll need to be given a sleeping draught before that happens or he'll have a very uncomfortable night here. I'm going to be keeping the other three tonight as well, just to make sure, and give them a potion to help them sleep soundly."

Petunia reluctantly let Harry be sent into dreamland while she prepared for her meeting with the headmaster. Before leaving, she promised that she would call Hermione's parents in the morning and let them know what happened and that everything was alright. Two girls in green trimmed robes were waiting outside the door to the hospital wing when Professor Mcgonagall opened it to lead the others to the headmaster's office, one of them with a pet carrier in her hands.

"What are you two doing out of your dorms?" The stern witch asked as she eyed the Bloody Baron, the Slytherin ghost, floating behind them.

"When Weasley didn't show back up in the dorms some of the other first year boys were saying he got killed by the troll." The blonde girl, Daphne Greengrass if Mcgonagall recalled correctly, answered. "Someone got the idea to torture Weasley's pet rat. It ran to Tracey here," She indicated her companion, "and we tore into them for being the reason he was in danger in the first place."

Professor Mcgonagall cocked an eyebrow at that, demanding explanation which Tracey Davis supplied, "Zabini was bragging to Nott about what he did to Weasley, putting puking powder on his food. He said he put way more than you're supposed to. Pranks are one thing, but it sounded like he was trying to _poison_ one of his own housemates. When Professor Snape came in to check on us and tell us the troll was dead we asked if we could bring Weasley's pet to him here in the hospital wing so it would be safe. I mean… I'm not a rat person, but still… The professor sent the Baron with us."

"Very well," Mcgonagall nodded, "five points each to Slytherin for house loyalty. Please do not tarry." She looked past the students to the ghost behind them, "Baron, please escort them back to their dorms after they have spoken with Mister Weasley." Mcgonagall turned to leave after the ghost nodded.

"Did she say the troll was dead?" Andromeda asked once they were out of earshot.

"Yes," Mcgonagall sighed, "the children didn't realize it when it happened, and I didn't want to worry them. But the troll is dead, it seemed to have been killed when it's head struck the ceiling. No wonder, since it was such a hard blow that it knocked a hole clean through the stones of Hogwarts."

"What?" Remus exclaimed, "How is that possible?"

"We will have to ask the headmaster about that, I suppose. Professor Sprout said that the hole was already starting to heal itself when she found them, but I have no idea how those two lifted a troll with that much force. I _am_ very thankful to learn that it wasn't actually deadly intent on their part, though."

Back in the Hospital Wing, Hermione and Dudley watched curiously as Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis apologized to Ron for not speaking out against how he was being treated sooner. The two weren't allowed to stay very long, but before they left they offered to let the redhead join them to study or work on homework whenever he was in the common room, the place he was hexed or jinxed most often now.

From where he lay on his wizard's chest, Najash studied the rodent in the carrier long after the girls that brought it had left and long after all the others in the room were sleeping. _There's something wrong with that rat_ the snake thought to himself as he drifted into a light sleep, ready to awaken and protect Harry if necessary.


	18. Chapter 17: Coming to Terms

**AN: Amazingly, "Why didn't Remus recognize Pettigrew" is easily the most-asked question I've received about this fic. Even moreso than "when do you update," Lol. Disregarding the canon fact that Lupin didn't realize the rat was in the school for an entire year, he was emotionally charged at this moment in this story after seeing Harry for the first time in a decade. I will cover some other reasons why that confrontation didn't happen here in-story later. But I'm genuinely shocked that so many people thought it would be instant recognition.**

Coming To Terms

"Ah, thank you for coming! Please take a seat." Albus said as the four people entered his office, "I can get us some tea if you would like? It's been a long evening."

Petunia fought not to gawk as she looked around the headmaster's office while he called an elf to bring them tea. The room was filled with gadgets and gizmos spinning and tumbling and beeping, to say nothing of the dozens of moving portraits lining the walls muttering to themselves and each other, she wasn't sure how the man could possibly get work done like this. There were four comfortable looking chairs arranged in front of the man's overly large desk and Remus chuckled at his employer's barely hidden wonder as he and Andromeda took seats on either side of Petunia. Minerva pulled her chair slightly to the side and took a seat where she could see all four other people.

"Well, I must admit." The headmaster began after they were seated and drinking, "At no point did I ever suspect a thing, Mrs. Dursley."

"I would say my Accounts Advisor did a wonderful job then." The woman replied, smirking at him.

"I assume you have some questions for me?"

"Let's start with the easy ones." Petunia said, leaning forward, "Was Hermione correct about the trapdoor under that dog, and about what you have under it?"

"Yes," Albus conceded immediately, no point in hiding something so simple, "one of the defenses in that corridor, past Hagrid's Cerberus, is a troll. Though that one is contained in a room whose entrance and exit are far too small to escape without magical assistance."

"Last month," the squib continued, "she and Harry wrote to me. They said they thought you were keeping a very valuable artefact in the corridor. Don't insult me by denying it, and I don't care what it actually is. What I want to know is, why is it _here_?"

Dumbledore sighed deeply before answering, obviously Hagrid wasn't discreet enough when picking up the Stone, in hindsight he shouldn't have asked Hagrid to do that the same day he met with Harry in the first place…

"The object in question is harmless by itself, but would be unimaginably dangerous in the wrong hands. It's owners kept it under some of the best wards in Britain, but when those wards began to be probed they asked me to hold onto it until they felt it safe to be returned." He pinched the bridge of his nose, "Gringotts was successfully broken into for the first time in history not long after the object was removed to be brought here. This is the only place I can think of that would be more secure than there."

"What happens when whoever is after this item comes to Hogwarts?" Remus asked, "When a student is attacked while they're here?"

"You know this castle at least as well as myself, Remus." The headmaster replied, "The easiest route from outside the school to that corridor would keep an intruder within the area I designated as 'out-of-bounds' for most of their invasion since most of the second floor on that side is unused as well. In the off chance that someone manages to actually get through the wards of Hogwarts, they would most certainly be smart enough to realize and follow such a route."

Petunia huffed at his answer and he continued, "The wards around Hogwarts have been built upon for a thousand years. The idea that a thief could get through them is honestly unthinkable, it would take an army. Please understand that, despite that, if there was any other place it could be hidden and still be safe I would have it there. As it is, I don't believe that it is yet known that it is in the castle. I can only imagine that Harry figured out that it was here due to Hagrid, it was he who retrieved the item from Gringotts for me."

"Have you fixed whatever issue allowed Harry to break into the corridor?" Petunia deadpanned, nodding in resignation when she got an affirmative response.

"May I ask a question before we get too far into this?" Dumbledore asked, "I think I understand Remus's presence here. I assume you knew more about your sister's friends and life than we suspected, and reached out to him? But why is Andromeda Tonks here?"

"I invited them to dinner," Andromeda answered, "Remus and Petunia got in touch with me recently and I felt it would be a good time to get together in remembrance of James and Lily. Professor Mcgonagall found out they were over and called us on the floo. I heard what was said about a troll and wanted to make sure Poppy didn't need help. Since she had everything in hand, and I only really had a connection with Harry in there, I followed Remus and Petunia out."

"I understand." Albus said, nodding before turning back to Petunia, "But are you sure you want her here during this discussion? Some things could be a bit personal…"

"I would prefer her here actually. Some of the things we need to discuss came up over dinner," Petunia quickly responded before glancing at Andromeda, "assuming you have time?"

"Of course," The woman responded, "and I would like to hear the answer to that question as well. I know that the school has been used for 'non-academic purposes' in the past, but why was a student able to get into the forbidden area? Wards should have been in place."

"There are new wards now." The headmaster explained, "The original setup was meant to easily allow Hagrid to come and go to take care of the Cerberus. Under the new ward _only_ he and authorized staff members can get in."

"It should have been that way to start with." Petunia grumbled.

"I agree," Mcgonagall said, "but in this case I believe the headmaster was simply preoccupied at the time." She gave Petunia a pointed look to make sure the squib knew just what he'd been focused on.

"Very well," Petunia sighed, understanding Minerva's point, she _had_ been basically jerking him around for almost a year, "I will accept that the third floor issue is resolved… for now, as a necessary evil; and that tonight was just a tragic accident brought on by negligence. But if I hear anything else from my three about it then I'll be going to the Daily Prophet, before filing to have them homeschooled by tutors until other arrangements can be made."

Both staff members present, as well as most of the portraits of past headmasters hanging on the walls, winced at the idea of the Prophet being involved, though only Dumbledore turned truly pale at the thought of Harry Potter leaving Hogwarts, "I assure you that will not be necessary." Dumbledore hastily said, "I'm actually planning to have a final security measure installed before or during the Christmas break. Without revealing anything, this security measure will ensure that the artefact cannot be found here via magical means. Once that is installed, only those who _already_ know the item is here will be able to find it. I doubt any of us are going to go spreading the information, though I will need to impress upon the children how important it is to keep it secret."

"In that case, let us move on to older grievances." Petunia announced, "Beginning with the very thing that convinced my husband and I that you were playing us. Why did you seal my sister's and her husband's wills? You told us in your letter that they never wrote them and we didn't believe you, Gringotts informed us the first time we visited that you had ordered them sealed as state secrets. Then they told us that there is a copy of each in Harry's vault that I planned to access once Remus became steward. But, Harry asked us not to open them before Christmas so that he could be there too. Without telling me what's inside, why did you feel the need to seal them?"

"Honestly, I have no idea what the wills say." Dumbledore answered, "But I couldn't risk young Harry going to a wizarding family, even if that had been what the Potters wanted. I sealed the wills a few days after I left him with you. By that time, Sirius Black had been apprehended and I feared the risk of another hidden death eater was simply too great. If Black could be a traitor, who could I trust?"

"That… actually makes perfect sense," the squib conceded, "so I'll accept that answer, at least until Christmas. However, if there was something in the will that you would have wanted hidden, we will deal with it." Her gaze turned much harsher, "Now explain why you thought simply leaving my nephew on the front porch like a bloody package was a good idea? As well as why you thought _never_ checking in on Harry was acceptable? Leaving Mrs. Figg living nearby told you _nothing_!"

Albus started at that, in all of this it had never occurred to him that Arabella had revealed herself to the Dursleys. "What made her tell you who she was?" He asked.

"Remus here recognized her, which is how I know she couldn't have kept you informed of Harry's well being. The woman stays in her house with her cats most of the time, the only interactions she had with Harry were when he cut her lawn for her. If she had actually been trying to keep track of Harry she would have noticed that he was aware of magic and been able to tell you so." Petunia frowned, "She also seemed to be under the impression that _Vernon and I_ were the ones primarily being watched."

"That is partially true, but I must pass some of that blame onto Minerva… and to yourself." The squib looked at the headmaster incredulously as he continued, "Minerva and Hagrid both informed me that you had had a major falling out with your sister, as well as that you were resentful of magic. I didn't have anywhere else in the muggle world I could take him, and once I realized that his mother's protection would be empowered by living with you I feared to deprive him of that security. Arabella was ostensibly there to watch Harry, but I really wanted to make sure you or your husband did not neglect or, Merlin forbid, abuse him. Obviously, that was a moot worry."

"And that's supposed to be why you left him out in the freezing cold instead of ringing the bell?" Petunia fired back, "He was half frozen when Vernon found him the next morning! I can only assume magic is what made a warm bath all it took for him to keep his fingers and toes."

Albus stared at her in confusion for quite a while, "But… I placed a warming charm on him… he should have been fine. I… I just didn't want to bother you. I had… I had no idea the charm fell off, I _certainly _put enough magic into it." He pinched his nose as he tried to think about what happened, "I can only guess that raising the wards afterwards caused an issue, but I do not know."

"Perhaps you are getting old and your magic isn't what it used to be. I don't care. The point is, Harry could have frozen to death that very first night because of that."

"No wonder he was so distrustful of me to start." The headmaster muttered.

"Speaking of him trusting you, he told me that your private lessons have been fun and interesting." Petunia segued, she glanced over to Mcgonagall, "How long do you think those will continue?"

"I think it would be better if the headmaster taught Mister Potter the transfiguration spell personally. I have studied it, but I do not have a familiar of my own. I wouldn't want to risk harming the snake if something went wrong that I did not understand. The spell is meant to be cast on objects or non magical animals. Najash is neither. I couldn't say how long that will take." Minerva supplied.

"The two of them have become rather close to feeling the familiar bond, which is particularly impressive since we've only met twice for a couple hours each time. They are very familiar with each other as well, at least as close as Fawkes and myself." The headmaster gestured to his phoenix as he spoke, causing the bird to trill and send a wave of peaceful emotion through the room. "One exceptionally interesting thing we've learned is that Najash has some intrinsic knowledge of alchemy, of all things. He instinctively understands the basic alchemical principles of substances more or less by smell. It will be a great boon to young Harry if he does, in fact, decide to pursue a career as a healer. Assuming his patients allow it. Though, as fast as he turned the school around on the subject, he may not have trouble with that either."

Remus thought about the snake that had been resting on Harry's chest while they were in the infirmary. It really did have Gryffindor's colours… but it was still probably going to be an issue pretty much anywhere in Europe, Britain in particular.

"The last thing I want to talk about, the Potter estate, can wait until that troll isn't on our minds." Petunia said, "Honestly, I'd prefer to end our short discussion here on a high note for the time being and Vernon is probably worried sick at this point." The headmaster sighed in relief, "But before we go, Remus will need to withdraw Harry on Sunday for some House business, he will be taking Dudley as well so that Vernon can see him after this incident. If Hermione wants to come, she may. They'll return that evening for dinner." Albus nodded at that, no use arguing, "I was also wondering if it would be possible for Vernon and I to see one of Harry's Quidditch games. I understand the first one is supposed to be pretty soon."

"Oh dear!" The Head of Gryffindor cried, "That's _this weekend_! Harry won't be able to fly."

"I will speak with Severus and Rolanda about delaying until next weekend." Albus placated his deputy, missing when Petunia scowled at the potions master's name, "But I'm afraid that I can't give a pass for your husband to come to the game. Unless of course he's also secretly a squib?" When Petunia shook her head in frustration, he continued, "I wouldn't want to be accused of favoritism with regards to Harry because of who he is. Muggle passes are reviewed by the school board, and are usually reserved for when students are very severely injured. Such a pass hasn't been issued since the last time there was an accidental death in the school about half a century ago, before I became headmaster. All that being said, there is nothing stopping _you _from attending except distance. If you wish to come and watch, there is no rule against it."

"I can pick up some omnioculars." Remus suggested, "They're like muggle binoculars except they are enchanted to basically be able to record video, among other things. We could get a few pairs and try to record highlights from the game for Vernon. Unfortunately, a regular camcorder wouldn't work around all the magic in Hogwarts."

Petunia nodded to him, "I would like to try that, if you wouldn't mind. Though, how about we keep it a secret from the children and surprise them?"

"Of course. If the professor here thinks he's as good as James then I absolutely want to see it. Plus, I'd love to see him and talk to him when he's not laid up in bed." The werewolf answered, "There is one thing I wanted to ask about though. Professor Mcgonagall said that Harry and Hermione lifted the troll with such force that it broke the stones of Hogwarts. How did they do that? Was it related to how Hermione burned her hand?"

"I intend to speak with Harry about that soon. It sounded as though he shared his magic with Miss Granger, which is loosely similar to what I'm teaching him in our sessions. But to do so with someone he has no preexisting bond with is highly irregular. Not unheard of though, some wizards just have so much magic that they can spare some for others too. One interesting aspect of power sharing like that is that the two mages casting together usually have more power than the two separately, which is what did in the troll. Though it certainly helps that a troll's magic resistance is stronger against offensive magic than against miscellaneous charms like levitation. If what I think happened really did, then I will need to speak to them about being careful. Without absolute trust between the people involved then there can be complications that result in injury."

"I was wondering about that too." Andromeda added, "I'm a little worried about the fact that Hermione's hand was burned. I worked with my husband when we warded our home, but this kind of power sharing here is new to me. I'd like to ask some other healers for their input, though I'll be sure to keep the children's names out of it."

"Please do," Petunia said, "but I really do need to be getting back to Vernon."

"Well," the headmaster said, clapping his hands, "I look forward to our next meeting. Hopefully I will have acceptable answers for you. If you'd like, you can use my floo to get home instead of walking back up all those stairs to Minerva's office.

Once the three guests had left through the fireplace, Albus sat back in his chair and popped a lemon drop into his mouth before offering one to Minerva. Fawkes swooped by and took it before she could make up her mind, causing both of the professors to chuckle at the bird's antics as it sang triumphantly upon returning to its roost to enjoy the treat.

"When did you find out who she was?" He asked once she had grabbed another candy out of the bowl.

"The day I went to check on Harry after his eleventh birthday." Professor Mcgonagall smirked like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "That was also the day that the Dursleys learned that Dudley was a wizard. Your wards kept his Hogwarts letter from being delivered on his birthday."

"Oh dear." Albus lamented, _I've done so much wrong in this…_

After exiting the floo at Andromeda's home, Petunia asked if she and Remus could use it again to go to the Leaky Cauldron, since her husband would be waiting for her there by now. At the woman's confused response she explained she and Vernon's plan; since Albus now knew about them they would be spending a week in the second house on Potter Isle to not risk the headmaster trying to confront them in their home. Vernon was more than capable of commuting from a parking garage near the tavern that stood entrance to Diagon Alley. Remus couldn't see a fault in that logic, and offered to place monitoring spells on Privet Drive when he went to inform the Polkiss and Grangers of what was happening. If the headmaster decided to try and pay the Dursleys a personal visit while they were gone, he would know about it and inform them.

Dumbledore never did though. Vernon suggested that maybe the wards that protect against "harmful intent" would stop him if he meant to obliviate them, since obviously that wouldn't be in Harry's interest. Remus didn't think the headmaster would do that at this point, even if he was actually antagonistic enough to try. Besides himself, there were also goblins that knew; and it was difficult to impossible to affect the minds of werewolves and goblins.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Cedric looked up from his Charms text when he heard someone calling for 'Mister Diggory' to find Harry Potter standing behind him.

"Something wrong?" He asked. Harry usually called him by his given name, "Is Hermione not in here with you? That's a first."

"I know we're already in a library and all, but could you put up those privacy spells like you did before? When you told me about your dad?"

Not seeing a reason not to, Cedric complied. A few swishes of his wand and muttered words later there were privacy screens around them preventing eavesdroppers. "Done."

"Uh," Harry was unsure as he sat down, "I'm probably going about this wrong but… I just wanted to let you know that I've started the process of installing a new Regent for House Potter. It's not your dad, obviously… so he's not going to be my proxy anymore. He should be getting the news soon, I just didn't want you to get blindsided by it if he wrote you for answers."

Cedric frowned at the first year, "Your regent doesn't _have_ to vote the proxy, so may I ask why you're _choosing _to replace my father? I promise I won't be too mad, I know he can be polarizing."

"I didn't know anything about him until after school started," Harry answered, "so I don't particularly hold any of this against him. But I've learned that his politics are pretty opposite to me." Cedric bid for him to elaborate, "It's mostly his stance on magical creatures, but that's pretty much the only thing he's done with my seat that I know of."

"I suppose it's not really my business, I know my dad can get zealous about stuff." Cedric replied, "Thanks for letting me know, I guess."

"Sorry to drop this on you." Harry replied, "My regent and steward apparently have a plan to keep your dad from drawing trouble for this if people start questioning, so you shouldn't worry too much I suppose."

"Thanks again," the third year replied, careful to remain cordial, "I need to get back to studying though."

Harry left him in peace, hoping Mister Amos Diggory didn't take the news too hard when it hit.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The weekend after the troll incident, Harry Potter found himself nervously heading to the locker rooms, alone, to change into his Quidditch robes, as well as the arm and leg pads that Remus had sent him. _How were those not a mandatory part of the uniform? _He'd seen each of the Weasleys hit by those practice bludgers over the last month, with no padding that would hurt! He had slipped away from his friends before the game to clear his head a bit, and was really hoping it turned out better than his worrying had led him to believe.

Since the seeker position was fairly straightforward, and wasn't supposed to do anything but look for the Snitch, Harry had only practiced with the team once a week since he was put on it. He wouldn't let Wood schedule him for more than that for fear of his grades slipping, especially since all his potions homework had to be absolutely flawless to keep his Exceeds Expectations grade in the class overall. Though that never stopped Wood from getting the others to practice two or three times a week at least.

Despite the apparent fervor it evoked in most wizards, Harry still wasn't sure he was fully on-board for this game. In particular, no one had been able to convince him that the role of seeker was actually going to be interesting. It sounded like he was just going to be flying around doing not much of anything except being pointless until the very last seconds of the game.

Just as he was preparing to enter the locker room built into the base of the Gryffindor stands, Harry saw something he certainly wasn't expecting.

"Aunt Petunia? Mist-er _Uncle _Moony? What are you doing here?" He asked. They hadn't said anything about coming to see him play!

Petunia grinned at her nephew, "We came to watch, of course. What? Did you think I was going to let you dodge flying iron balls and _not_ be here to ground you if you take risks while doing it?"

"Uh…" Harry was glad to see his aunt again, but he wasn't sure he wanted her to see him play. It would suck if she liked it but he didn't, which was still seeming possible.

"Something wrong Harry?" Remus asked, "Nervous?"

"A little." Harry admitted, "I'm still a little confused by the game though. Two months in and no one's been able to tell me how the seeker doesn't just ruin the fun. There's no time limit, and whoever catches the Snitch almost always wins. It's like the rest of the team is just there to entertain the audience while the seekers fly around fairly aimlessly until someone sees gold."

"That does sound odd." Petunia conceded.

"Plus, our captain wants me to just shadow the other seeker since he's more experienced. That's-"

"Harry." Remus put a hand on his shoulder to slow his rant, "Did you know that there isn't any rule preventing a seeker from holding the Quaffle?" Harry's eyes brightened as he imagined the implications of that, "You just can't score. If you want it to feel more like a game, try doing that if you think you can. Some professional teams will run their seeker as sort of fourth chaser anyways. Just be careful about it, in school games the snitch is enchanted to stop moving periodically unless it is actively being chased. You don't want to miss it if it shows itself."

Harry smiled, "Thanks Uncle Moony." He gave them both a hug for good luck before heading into the locker room.

"I hope it's more interesting than he thinks." Petunia said as they began ascending the stairs.

The visitors stands were above the already full student ones. Unfortunately it appeared she wouldn't get to see Hermione or Dudley until after the game, they were too far forward in the seating. This annoyed her, since it was due to Vernon delaying them that morning, he had almost kept them from even getting to see Harry before the game! When they made it to the top, far too high for Petunia's taste, they found the area totally empty save for themselves.

"Does no one else come to watch these games?" She asked, "That must be disheartening for the children."

"Not usually." Remus confessed, "It's just not a thing wizardkind do very often, the students are used to it. Professional games though, those will have packed stadiums. Even those are much smaller than the average muggle stadium though."

Petunia shook her head at that, but didn't have a chance to answer as words began echoing through the pitch. The announcer behind the voice introduced himself as Lee Jordan before beginning to introduce the school teams, beginning with Slytherin. Petunia was rather shocked at just how loud the booing was for the team, that level of distaste wasn't healthy in children. Her discomfort was short lived as the Gryffindor team began to be announced. As each player was called they flew up into the center of the pitch, often with some dramatic flourish. When Harry's name was called he shot up from the ground, pulling a backward loop much tighter than either of the other students to do so, before joining his team fifty feet in the air.

"Shoot!" Petunia exclaimed as she turned to Lupin, "We should have recorded…"

"Way ahead of you ma'am." Remus responded from behind his omnioculars. Petunia stifled a chuckle looking at him, the device looked like someone attached a half dozen moveable, coloured jeweler's lenses to the front of a pair of brass binoculars. "I figure we should record the beginning too, if Harry does what I suggested then the opening plays should be interesting."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Hey Gred, Forge." Harry whispered to the twins as he changed, "Can you guys back me up against Wood on changing the play a little today?" The two looked unsure of their teammate's request as he explained it until Harry threw in the best reason imaginable, "It was Mister Moony's idea. If you help, and it works, I'll try to introduce you. He's gonna be watching the game."

The twins took Oliver Wood aside before he gave his pregame pep talk, two minutes later the team captain came back and quickly explained how their plan for the day was going to be "a little different" than what they'd practiced. All the while, he eyed Harry and prayed the first year knew what he was doing.

By the time Harry exited his loop he was tentatively excited to play the game. Just because he hadn't participated in most of the chaser drills didn't mean he hadn't watched. A quick explanation back in the locker room to the three girls scoring for Gryffindor and they understood how he planned to help.

Below him, the captains stood with Madame Hooch, the referee, before mounting their brooms and heading for their respective hoops, three at different elevations on each side. Slytherin was the only other House to have a keeper as their captain, both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw apparently reserved that spot for the seeker most years.

The game was originally going to start on the ground in deference to Harry's lack of experience, but he had insisted that he could enter the pitch with the appropriate flourish and hold formation properly. Hopefully his entrance had been convincing enough. Madame Hooch rose rapidly between the two groups of three chasers before launching the Quaffle from her hands and blowing her whistle to officially start the game. The Bludgers, which had flown to the two sides of midfield when first released from their crate, immediately began hurtling around the pitch towards the players.

One of the Gryffindor chasers, a third year named Alicia Spinnet, was the first to get the Quaffle after it was released. However, mere moments after grabbing it she lost hold due to a Bludger sent her way by one of the Slytherin beaters. A Slytherin chaser was quick to scoop it from under her and made a line for the goal hoops. As the chaser passed the ball to one of his partners to avoid a different Bludger directed at him Harry flew into motion, dropping straight down between the two chasers and grabbing the Quaffle as he flew by. Lee Jordan, the announcer, began yelling praise for Harry as the first year quickly flew towards the Slytherin hoops before juking left and dropping the ball into the waiting hands of second year Katie Bell, who then easily scored the first goal of the game past a completely dumbfounded Marcus Flint.

Most of the Slytherin team had come to a standstill as their captain argued with Madame Hooch over the legality of the play.

"It looks like Flint isn't too happy about Potter's enhanced involvement in the gameplay." Lee jeered from the announcer's stand, "But too bad there, it's a legal move. Seekers are allowed to touch any ball they want, but any goals they might score aren't counted."

As no time out had been called, the gameplay hadn't actually been stopped by the Slytherin team's disbelief in Harry's actions. The Gryffindors were able to make a second goal while Flint was ordering his players around, something that incensed the fifth year even further.

_What's more_, Flint thought as he returned to position, Weasley had insisted that Potter had never flown a broom before coming to Hogwarts and barely knew the rules of Quidditch! That brat was going to pay for lying to him!

The game slowed down after ten minutes and five goals for Gryffindor, the other team finally adapting to Harry by grouping much closer together when carrying the Quaffle. Unfortunately, this made the chasers in green a much larger and easier target for Fred and George Weasley to whack Bludgers at. And whack they did, almost unseating one seventh year chaser who looked ready to drop all pretense and hex the twins right there in the sky after he was winded by a blow to the chest.

Harry, for his part, was having a blast. Flying on a broom was easily one of his favorite things to do with magic, and he was actually enjoying the play of the game more than he had thought possible before speaking with Uncle Moony. He kept an open eye on where the Slytherin seeker was, and whenever Harry had the Quaffle he would drift the play over to whatever side of the pitch his opposite was patrolling so he could be close if the Snitch showed itself.

Half an hour into the game, it happened. Lee Jordan was being berated over the magical loudspeaker for the second or third time by Professor Mcgonagall for talking more about the appearances of the three Gryffindor chasers than about the gameplay when Harry's broom began to malfunction. Due to Jordan's current vocal obsession with the "lovely" Angelina Johnson, who was on the other side of the pitch, the two teams almost didn't notice Harry's broom bucking him like a wild horse until he had almost been unseated.

"What is Harry doing?" Dudley asked from where he sat beside Hermione and Neville in the Gryffindor stands. As far as he was concerned, House loyalty only mattered when Hufflepuff was actually on the pitch.

"I've never seen him like that on a broom." Neville added, "He looks like I did the first couple of weeks!"

"Look over there," Parvati pointed over their heads from her seat behind them, "the professors have noticed, they'll fix it soon."

Hermione frowned as she looked away from Harry over to the teachers' box. She gasped when she realized that Professor Snape was muttering something under his breath while staring directly at Harry. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out the stethoscope that Dudley had given her and put the earpieces in. The teachers' box was right at a hundred feet away, but they were sitting at the very front of the Gryffindor stands, she might be able to tell what he was saying.

Dudley grinned when he saw Hermione pull out the enchanted item, "What are they talking about?" He asked.

"Snape is incanting something," She replied, "I can't understand it very well, it's too far. But I think he's saying 'finite' a lot. What is that spell?"

"That's a magic cancelling spell." Neville replied, "The Weasley twins have used it on me a few times to get me out of hexes from the Slytherins."

"Oh my gosh!" Hermione gasped, her mind going straight to the worst case scenario, "Could he be trying to cancel the magic on Harry's broom?"

"Is that possible?" Dudley questioned at the same time Parvati asked, "Why would he do that?"

Taking Parvati's question as evidence she was right, Hermione quickly rose and ran out of the stands and down the tower. Neville and Dudley were going to follow her until a collective gasp from the crowd turned them back to Harry, where Fred and George were now circling under him causing the audience to finally notice what was wrong.

"Please stay here, there's nothing you can do to help with him so far in the air." Remus said as he stopped Petunia from storming down the stairs and onto the pitch as soon as they noticed Harry's broom issues, "The professors look to be investigating the situation, and if Harry _does _fall I'm confident I can land a slowing spell on him to keep it from being dangerous. I'm also sure at least half the staff is thinking the same thing while the other half is considering just how soft they'll need to make the ground beneath him to make the landing safe."

Petunia sat back down on the edge of her seat, worriedly watching as Harry struggled to control the bucking broom, she wanted to scream at the Gryffindor keeper when he tried to get the two redheaded boys to leave Harry be and stop circling under him, and more than once felt her heart drop as her nephew almost lost his grip.

After a minute and a half of fighting, the broom bucked one last time before stopping its struggle. Unfortunately, this last motion was apparently what it took to unseat Harry, who rolled over his broom and ended up hanging down from it by one hand. Harry quickly, but carefully, guided his now obedient broom to descend straight down while keeping it parallel to the ground to avoid falling. He never tried to reach up and grab the broom with his second hand, the reason for which became apparent once he landed and held it up in triumph, the Golden Snitch struggling in his grip.

The stadium went wild. Everyone was focused on the hand holding the broom that they hadn't even realized that the game was over. Above the cheers, Lee Jordan shouted, "Gryffindor wins two-thirty to thirty!"

Meanwhile, up in the teachers' box, the staff were putting out a literal fire that had erupted at their feet now that the metaphorical one on the pitch was averted. At the base of the raised box that held the staff seating, Hermione nodded contentedly to herself as she watched Harry land safely. She had run up the steps and set the hem of Professor Snape's robes on fire from beneath the stand floor. The moment that he'd noticed and started a commotion, knocking over several of the other teachers in the process, Harry's broom had righted itself. As far as she was concerned, she had her answer, though she wasn't sure how to come to terms with it. A professor was trying to kill her best friend!

As soon as Harry landed and held the Snitch up in victory, Madame Hooch blew her whistle to end the game and landed beside him. After giving him a heartfelt congratulations for his catch, the flying instructor took his broom from him and began casting diagnostic spells on it right there on the pitch. She frowned after casting before shaking her head and setting the broom down behind her as more staff, as well as the rest of the Gryffindor team, joined them in the center of the pitch.

Through all the ruckus and celebration, Harry fought to keep his heart rate under control. He knew just how close he'd come to falling, and potentially dying, today; and he was getting quite tired of life or death situations. At least there was the silver lining of the Snitch deciding to stop directly below him right as his broom came back under his control. Its timing couldn't have been better, this way if she asked he'd be able to tell his aunt that he actually lost his grip and just lucked out with the catch. He knew it was dangerous, his broom could have begun acting up again, but none of what happened to him was enough to get the officials to pause the game so he decided his best chance for safety was to just end it when he had the chance.

Harry strained his ear and heard Madame Hooch, over the loud congratulations of his teammates, tell Professor Flitwick that the broom had traces of a dark curse on it; but she wasn't able to identify it, nor who the caster was. The only thing she could tell was that it was being actively placed while Harry flew, so they had to have been an observer.

While they walked back to the locker room Harry answered the accolades of his team, mostly from Wood, more or less on autopilot as he tried to process what he'd overhead on the field. By the time they made it to the changing room, Fred and George had realized that Harry wasn't really celebrating yet and pulled Oliver off of him. The captain had been gushing about Harry's early plays, as well as his miraculous catch of the Snitch, almost nonstop without once asking if the first year was alright.

"You okay Harry?" One of the twins asked after Harry had sat in silence for half a minute.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine now." He replied as he took a few deep breaths. Harry filed away what he'd learned about this apparent attempt on his life for later, his aunt _was_ here after all, and he was definitely going to tell her before she left. That done, he grinned and looked at the three older boys, "Pretty good for a first game though, yeah?"

The others broke out in laughter at Harry's understatement, "Mate," Oliver said, "that was some amazing flying. I'm sorry for doubting you at the start; and good job keeping on your broom while… whatever that was, was happening."

"Madame Hooch took my broom, I think she's gonna have it examined or something." Harry replied, "It just went crazy with no warning, I think it might of been cursed."

"I'll bet the Slytherins did it." Oliver mused aloud, "Flint was furious that you got a Nimbus, especially since you're a first year. Snape was supposedly one of the loudest in complaining about your exemption to play, too."

"Maybe…" Harry deferred. As much as he didn't like Snape, the potions master had been helpful when he was worried for Najash. He also found the professor much less abrasive if he went to the man in his office and asked questions in private. It was almost as if there were two Professor Snapes; one that was distant but still decent, and one that was abrasive and seemingly spiteful. Harry had seen the abrasive and spiteful Snape less in the last month or so, and Slytherin House in general had stayed away from him after the troll incident last week.

At the base of the teachers' box, Petunia and Remus were questioning Professor Mcgonagall and Sprout about what had transpired. Learning that a spectator had actively tried to murder her nephew incensed Petunia, and she was already talking about pulling Harry out when Dumbledore interceded after walking into the argument late and needing to be brought up to speed on the situation.

"I understand your concern ma'am," normally the headmaster would call someone by their first name, but he had a strong suspicion that Petunia wouldn't respond well to that at the moment, "but I'm sure we can come to some agreement that would be less extreme. Perhaps having him leave the Quidditch team would be a first option?" Minerva paled at that, where she hadn't at what she hoped were currently empty withdrawal threats, "He has been perfectly safe in class, barring the unfortunate events of last week."

Remus put a hand on Petunia's shoulder to calm her before adding his own opinion, "I think neither of those works. We shouldn't punish Harry for someone else's actions, it means they win. I can only assume that, somehow, a death eater that escaped incarceration snuck onto the grounds. No offense to the professors, but no student is capable of subverting the protective charms on a professional racing broom, so it must have been an intruder. Plus, Harry making the team as a first year was a front page article in the _Prophet _back when it was announced, so anyone interested would have known exactly when to come." He looked at the headmaster and continued, "Sir, I think if you could guarantee that you'd personally attend all future games, then Harry should be safe. I can't imagine anyone would have tried that with you here in the audience."

"That wouldn't be an issue. I normally attend the games anyway, my not being here was an anomaly."

Petunia looked like she was sucking on a lemon as she mulled over what her friend had said, "I suppose that might be acceptable, if I can get your word that games will be postponed if something comes up that keeps you from attending. I also expect you to be figuring out how this happened."

"Whoever did it was was rather powerful." Professor Snape said as he finally made his way down the stairs. His robes were still charred at the bottom, the effects of the magical fire being a bit difficult to fix after he's spent so much magic just moments earlier. Glaring briefly at Potter's aunt, he paused to restructure his sentence. It wouldn't do to call the boy "arrogant" or "brat" in front of someone he knows already dislikes him.

"I wasn't able to dispel the curse on Potter's broom," He finally finished, "but until something lit my robes on fire I was suppressing it a fair amount. It appears that by some miracle, the one doing the cursing ran out of steam about the same time I became distracted."

"By the way, hello Tuney." He added at the end.

"Severus." She replied curtly.

"None of that now." Remus pleaded, Petunia had told him about Snape's treatment of the three kids in the first weeks of school, "Forgetting your issues for a moment, Snape is about as strong, magically, as I am. He's also about as trained in defense as me, but he's got a knack for curse breaking that would have me beat." Snape sneered at the werewolf, remembering exactly _how_ he became so good at breaking jinxes and hexes, which had led to curses, "Dumbledore is stronger and more experienced than both of us. Snape being able to suppress the curse means the headmaster could have broken it."

"Alright then," Petunia conceded, "if the headmaster is willing to agree to those terms then Harry can stay on the team." After an affirmative from the old man, she continued, "In that case, I'd like to congratulate Harry before he gets back into the crowd and let him know what has been decided here. He might withdraw on his own if he doesn't know." She thought for a moment, "Hopefully Dudley and Hermione are still around too, I wouldn't want to miss them."

Five minutes later, after assuring his aunt that he was totally fine and hadn't dislocated or twisted anything, Harry introduced "Messrs Weasley and Weasley" to "Mister Moony" in what was probably the most hilarious gag interaction anyone around had seen in ages. Moony made to shake their hands but before he could they retracted theirs, glancing at each other seemingly nervous over it. They decided to play rock-paper-scissors for the honor of being first, as well as the guinea pig, and needed ten rounds to have a winner.

Fred stepped up to clasp his hero's hand, and a loud _clack_ was heard as they connected. The redhead suddenly felt that something was off, looking to his side he found his brother laughing at him.

"Thought you would try and show the last Marauder how he's just an old man?" Remus asked as he chuckled at the boy in front of him, who was now sporting sickly grey hair and wrinkles on his face. "You'll need to try harder than that my _formerly _young friend."

As he finished his statement he turned Fred's hand over, revealing that the third year had been palming a rune stone. The boy blushed as red as his hair _used_ to be, which just caused those present to laugh again, as he was still old and wrinkly in the face. Remus discreetly slid the other rune stone, enchanted to reflect simple jinxes and hexes at the point of contact, in his own palm back under his sleeve to keep the secret.

"I was pranked by a Marauder." Fred mumbled as it finally caught up with him.

"Lucky sod." His twin joked, "My turn to try next time."

"Oh?" Remus asked good naturedly as he pulled out his wand, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were waiting till next time, I'll undo that if you'd like."

"Huh?" George exclaimed as he began checking himself over, turning every which way trying to figure out what the legendary prankster had done to him. "What did he do? Someone tell me!"

Harry was the first to catch on, and began chuckling at the redhead's antics. Fred realized what Moony had done a moment later, and his uproarious laughter as his face and hair slowly returned to normal sent his twin over the edge. With a howl of despair, George bolted back into the locker room to get in front of a mirror and figure out what had happened to him.

"I don't understand," Petunia said once the boy had run away, "nothing happened."

"That's the point," Harry said, still chuckling, "even if we'd said that though, he wouldn't have believed it. I bet he's in there another half-hour trying to figure it out. Uncle Moony made him prank _himself_, just like he did to Fred."

After a quick goodbye to his team, Harry went with the two adults to find Hermione and Dudley. He was sure they would be worrying about him after being in the stands when everything was happening. Sure enough, they were waiting at the path that led away from the pitch, along with Justin and Neville.

"Hey mum!" Dudley shouted when he caught sight of them, "When did you get here?"

As he asked he ran up to meet her, grabbing her in a hug while she answered, "Unfortunately too late to see you and Hermione since you were already in the stands, but we managed to catch Harry before the game."

"Miss Petunia," Hermione said as she and the others caught up with Dudley, "we think it was Professor Snape that did it. He was casting something at Harry; and I could hear him saying '_finite_' a lot, Neville says that's a spell that makes magic stop working, when I used the stethoscope Dudley gave me. We think he was trying to break Harry's broom while he was flying."

"Actually," Petunia corrected, before turning to Harry to make sure he heard as well, Harry had been having a rough time in potions up until a couple weeks ago according to Hermione, "Severus, Professor Snape, was holding the curse back a little. The teachers think you probably wouldn't have kept your grip without him. It was lucky that whoever was cursing your broom stopped when they did. Something lit Severus' robes on fire while he was protecting you and that broke his concentration."

Hermione was standing slightly behind Petunia at the older woman explained the terms she had arranged with the school, so she didn't see the look of personal horror that flooded over the young girl's face, but Remus did. He'd seen that look before, on someone he used to think of as a best friend. Quietly getting her attention, he frowned at her before putting a finger to his lips to keep her quiet for the time being. He'd let Petunia know later, but didn't see a reason to punish Hermione more at the moment. It was clear from her expression that the thought that she might have doomed her friend was enough, and it's not like Snape was actually hurt. The sour man probably deserved it, from what he'd heard, even if the timing was off.

"And you must be Neville and Justin." Petunia said, looking over the two other boys, "It's nice to meet you, I have heard quite a bit about you."

"You as well ma'am." Justin replied.

"It's nice to meet you," Neville said, "and thank you for inviting me to spend some time with Harry and Dudley over Christmas break."

"Oh don't mention it." The squib waved him off kindly, "Harry told me about your offer to help us with our greenhouse and we are looking forward to it. My boys might have mentioned, but I do a bit of brewing myself. It will be nice to have some plants on hand for making first aid potions and cleaning solutions." She turned to the other young man in front of her, "And if you'd like to, you may certainly visit during the break as well."

"Dudley offered, and I have written to my mother about it." Justin replied, "She is talking with my father, but I think it is a tentative yes for a couple days during the break."

"Hey Mum, do you and Mister Lupin wanna have lunch with us?" Dudley asked, "I bet it's no problem."

"Oh my," Petunia gasped, "I hadn't even thought of that! That would be wonderful, Dudley. Assuming it _is_ within the rules, I would love to meet all of your friends here."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

_Father,_

_ I hope your trip to South America was fruitful and pleasant. Unfortunately, my Saturday was ruined by having to share a dining hall with a muggle! Potter's muggle aunt, as well as a middle-aged wizard I did not recognize, had lunch in the Great Hall at the Hufflepuff table with Potter and his mudbloods! Apparently they also attended the Gryffindor-Slytherin game. How did a muggle get into Hogwarts? I thought that the board had to approve that, and you haven't been here to do it._

_Speaking of Quidditch, it seems that Weasley either isn't as cunning as I thought, or is much more formidable than I had imagined. He has told me things about Potter and his mudbloods in the common room since I stopped treating him like a blood traitor. Mostly things that I believe he would consider innocent and unimportant. But today I am forced to call everything the redhead has told me into question. _

_He actually shared lunch with Potter and his muggle aunt, I fear that he might be working to help his father improve that bill that is bothering you with muggle influence. You should be able to use that against him though, no pureblood would stand to be bound by laws crafted by muggle hands. _

_That isn't the most damning thing though, the first and most adamant claim Weasley has made was that Potter had never flown a broom before Hogwarts. He even went so far as to say that Potter had barely _heard _of Quidditch before coming to the castle! This was why I suggested you back off of banning Potter, having him humiliate himself by failing would have been perfect. Unfortunately, and I am loathe to admit this, Potter is one of the most adept flyers I have ever seen. Even when someone hexed his broom to try and unseat him, Potter still caught the Snitch! If it's possible, you should begin trying to get him banned again._

_I haven't been able to find anything out concerning Potter or Longbottom having a second wand either, though I have heard rumours that Potter's wand has a Horned Serpent core. Between that, and his pet, Potter has too many connections to serpents for a Gryffindor in my opinion._

_Please inform me if you have any particular assignment for me while I am at school, I look forward to returning home to the Manor for the Holidays._

_Your Son,_

_Draco Malfoy_

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

_Draco,_

_ Your father has not returned from his trip abroad. Unfortunately, he fell ill with some forest-fever that has left him weak. As the disease is apparently contagious, I have not been able to visit him either. But I have heard from the healers in Brazil, and he should be back by the solstice._

_ Please conduct yourself in a manner befitting of a Malfoy. While he has certainly expressed how excellent you are in your studies, Severus has informed me that you have a quick temper that will soon get you into trouble. Your father's anger is his worst trait, it is not to be emulated!_

_ You really shouldn't focus so hard on your father's 'assignments' and remember to be young as well. I love you dear, and I too look forward to seeing you return. The Manor is simply too quiet without you around._

_ Love,_

_ Your Mother_

**AN: I'm sure a lot of people expected this chapter to have Petunia laying the smackdown on Dumbledore like you think he deserves, but after everything else that had happened on this, the anniversary of her sister's death of all things, she decided to wait until she had a cooler head.**


	19. Chapter 18: Discussions

Discussions

Harry stood perfectly still inside the runic array that the headmaster had arranged in his office while Najash rested on a pedestal on the other side of the circular design. Behind him, Hemione studied the procedure carefully. This was the first time she'd been allowed to attend one of Harry's special lessons, and she was determined to remember as much as she could. She had already decided that when she was old enough for it to be safe she wanted a proper familiar of her own. Though she was leaning towards a cat, cliche as that was. She needed to ask the headmaster about it while she was here.

Harry had spent the first twenty minutes of the lesson, before the headmaster had placed the pre-drawn rune circle, under a series of charms that let him experience Najash's senses, and vice versa. This was supposed to help them understand each other better when they went to find and quantify the bond between them, and they had spent the meeting before this almost entirely under the effects of the charm. Hermione had been allowed to talk to Harry while he was sense-sharing with Najash, but it was awkward as sometimes he would reply in Parseltongue without realizing it. Najash's senses, according to Harry, were confusing but amazing. While sharing with the snake, Harry could "taste" warm and cold, as well as emotional ranges to a degree.

Hermione gasped softly as she felt magic ripple out of the rune circle. Harry had been silently meditating for almost five minutes at this point with nothing happening, the runes gently pulsing as they glowed. The feeling she now got from the circle reminded her of when she and Harry would cast spells together.

"Excellent, I think he's done it." The headmaster spoke quietly, "Harry, do you think you can find that again without the runes helping you?"

"I think so," the boy replied as he slowly opened his eyes, "should I step outside it and try again?"

"You would likely find it extremely easy to grab ahold of the bond right now because you just did," he answered, "so you should wait until tonight. Perhaps your Head of House could offer her office for the twenty minutes or so it should take."

"That won't be a problem," The woman in question agreed, "though I would like to get some work done after this. Could we please address the issue from last weekend?"

"What issue is that ma'am?" Hermione asked while Harry picked up his familiar and wiped a bit of sweat off his forehead.

"During the incident with the troll," the headmaster spoke, "you two performed a most remarkable feat of magic. One that neither of you could have managed separately, or even merely working together normally."

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other as the headmaster explained, they hadn't told anyone but Neville about magic frequencies and synchronising outside of the time with the troll.

"Is something wrong with it?" Harry finally said, "Matching our magic just makes it easy to cast the same spell on something. That's basically all it was."

"No, it was more than simple synchronicity." Dumbledore returned, "I decided to have this test of your bond today because I _knew _that you would succeed, you've already done something much harder. You opened a link with Miss Granger and fed magic to her through it, allowing you to cast a spell together with uncanny power. Unlike with Najash, however, there is no preexisting bond to protect you from harming each other. Sharing power like that can be very dangerous for both of you. But especially, the magically weaker of you can be burnt out if the spell being cast is simply too far above your norm."

"I trust Harry." Hermione proclaimed with more strength than she felt, she had no illusions that she wasn't the magically weaker of the two. _That burning could have killed me?_ "He wouldn't hurt me."

"Yes well, trust is the most important factor in joint magic such as what you performed working. However, I must ask you not to do so again unless it is a life or death decision. There is no need for it at your ages but if, when you are older, you are still interested in it then I can hold lessons with you." The headmaster smiled, "Of course, that has nothing to do with magic synchronicity. If you wish to continue your practicing with that, then I encourage it."

"Thank you, and thank you again for letting me watch Harry's lesson." Hermione added, "Could you recommend a book about different kinds of familiars to me? I'm most interested."

"Miss Granger, perhaps that can wait until you are older?" Professor Mcgonagall interjected, "It is a small miracle that Mister Potter suffered no permanent negative effects from such a young bonding. Additionally, you would likely lack the advantage of being able to literally speak to your chosen companion."

"But-"

"I see no reason she can't begin learning about different kinds of animals that are generally chosen though." Dumbledore said, overruling his deputy as he wrote down a title on a piece of parchment. "Remember that forming a familiar bond must be a mutual decision. You should endeavor to find a creature that your magic responds to and not just look for a specific species or breed necessarily."

"Thank you sir, I will." Hermione promised as she accepted the parchment.

"Well, in that case," the headmaster said with a clap of his hands, "thank you again for allowing me to teach you Harry, and congratulations once more on your victory despite adversity on the pitch yesterday. Next time we meet like this we will begin working on the shrinking spell, starting with regular objects. Miss Granger, you are welcome to join us if you would like and Harry allows."

"I'm sorry Hermione," Harry said as soon as they were at the base of the stairs outside the headmaster's office, "I had no idea that was dangerous."

"It's okay Harry, it was just a little burn. My hand is totally fine now. Saving Dudley and Ron was more important. But we should definitely try to avoid doing that again."

"For sure."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I wasn't expecting you home for another hour." Molly Weasley said as her husband came through the door. "I haven't finished cleaning yet and dinner hasn't been started, so give me some time dear."

"It's alright Molly, but we need to prepare for company tonight. I received a request from the Potter family this morning." Arthur grinned like a loon, "Apparently their new regent wants to talk to me about the Muggle Protection Act. The request came in this morning and I verified with the man that delivered it, the steward I believe, that today would be alright. I didn't want to delay it since I'm planning to present the bill next month. I left a little early to get some paperwork together."

"Oh dear," Molly groaned, "why does that have to happen in the house?"

"Well, it shouldn't be too much trouble. I believe it will only be the new regent and her advisor. Why don't you let me finish up cleaning while you get dinner started? Whatever you were going to make is probably fine, we just need enough for five instead of three."

"I'm almost done in here," his wife replied, "just let me finish and I'll get something started." She thought about what her husband had said, "Do you really think Ginny needs to be there? She's much too young for politics."

"Perhaps," Arthur conceded, "but she would never forgive us if we deprived her of a chance to ask about Harry Potter. From what I understand, the advisor is one of the people who raised the boy after that Halloween."

Molly couldn't argue with that, and the two set about preparing for their unexpected guests. Hiding on the stairwell, a ten year old girl was giddy with excitement that she hadn't felt when her father had first announced dinner guests. She wasn't going to be sent Aunt Muriel's for the night! She might get to meet some of Harry Potter's family!

The Weasley matriarch had secretly looked forward to having dinner guests while she was cooking. But when she reentered the living room to tell Arthur it was almost ready, she suffered quite a shock. Her husband was adding their guests to the floo book, their oldest son Bill had made a special privacy ward for their floo before he left for Egypt since Molly was always home all day, and he was speaking the names aloud as he wrote. She thought that "Andromeda Tonks" sounded familiar to her, but "Petunia _Dursley_" definitely did.

That was the name of that boy who'd written her a letter about Ronald early last month, she'd tossed it in the garbage but remembered the name. A Hufflepuff who defended a Slytherin was odd enough to stick in her mind, and why would a Dursley be related to Harry Potter?

She had almost half an hour to wonder over the question before the floo ignited and two women entered her living room one after the other. The first was dressed in casual robes and had a regal air about her that was hard to deny, but the other caused her to worry if Arthur had been lied to. She was clearly a muggle, wearing a muggle outfit and handbag and looking disapprovingly at the magical architecture of the Burrow. She'd thought "Dursley" sounded muggle, now she was sure.

"Welcome, welcome," Arthur said as he stepped forward, "I am Arthur Weasley, welcome to _The Burrow_."

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with us Mister Weasley," The regal, brown haired woman said as she stepped forward and shook the man's hand, "I am Andromeda Tonks, and this is Petunia Dursley. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Indeed," Arthur said as he shook both women's hands, "this is my wife, Molly, and our daughter Ginny is upstairs in her room. She should be down for dinner soon, the table will be set in a few minutes."

"Wonderful," Andromeda said, smiling serenely, "I've heard many excellent things about your wife's cooking."

"Mrs. Dursley," The Weasley patriarch inquired, "if you don't mind my asking, how are you related to the Potter family? I'm pretty sure that Andromeda here is related to the Potters by marriage, but I can't say as I've ever heard of a 'Dursley' before."

"You wouldn't have," she replied, "its my husband's name, and he's not magical."

"What was your name before you married?" Molly asked from behind her husband.

"It was also a muggle name, so you wouldn't recognize it either I wouldn't think."

"Do you really know Harry Potter?" A tiny voice from the bottom of the stairs interrupted the woman's questioning and drew the attention of the four adults. A young girl with bright red hair she obviously inherited from her parents was hiding partially behind the bannister. "Could you tell me about him?"

The innocence in the girl's face melted Petunia's heart like only a child could, and she smiled broadly as she answered, "Yes I do, is there anything in particular you want to know?"

"Has he really beaten a dragon and outsmarted a sphinx?" The girl asked, her eyes growing in excitement.

"What?" Petunia asked, stunned and completely at a loss, "Why would you think that? If Harry did something that dangerous I'd ground him until he was thirty!"

"But the books say he was raised by-" the girl started to explain.

"Ginny dear-" Molly tried to interject.

"What books?" Petunia asked, turning to the adults in the room as she did.

"Just some silly children's stories that have been popular since eighty-one." Arthur explained, "_The Adventures of Harry Potter_, imaginary stories of the adventures Harry could get up to after defeating You-Know-Who."

Petunia knelt down to speak softly to the girl, "Ginny is it? Harry and I have never talked about writing a book before, so anything that _is_ true in your stories is just by accident. Harry had a regular old childhood just like anyone else." She smiled sweetly to stall the girls tears, "Plus, beating up dragons sounds more like my son, Harry's cousin. Harry has always wanted to be a healer and cure all the world's illnesses."

Ginny smiled back, only moderately disappointed, "Well… he's Harry Potter, he can do anything."

"They can do anything they set their minds to, Harry and Dudley both." Petunia agreed. There was a small gasp from Molly Weasley as Petunia named her son, confirming the woman's suspicions. There was no way this was just about Arthur's bill in the Wizengamot…

"Arthur," Andromeda spoke softly to avoid being heard by Ginny, "before we start dinner there is something that we need to talk about. You probably want to send your daughter upstairs for ten minutes or so first."

Arthur wasn't pleased, but did agree to send Ginny to play in her room for just a little while longer while the adults talked. He wasn't sure what to make of the pale complexion his wife was showing as they sat down around the table with cups of tea to discuss… whatever.

Andromeda and Petunia glanced at each other before they began speaking; they had worked out the basics of how they wanted to approach this after Remus had taken some time to exchange a few letters with Ron, as well as speak to the boy during lunch last Saturday. The idea that a woman could ostracize her own son for something he didn't have any say over was anathema to Petunia, so she was trusting Andromeda to lead the discussion and keep her from losing her composure if necessary. Seeing Ron break down crying the night of the troll attack had rattled Petunia once the shock of what had happened to Harry had worn off. This woman was at least as responsible as Dumbledore for Harry getting hurt.

"Let me start," Andromeda began, "by asking whether you two were aware that a mountain troll slipped into Hogwarts during the Halloween feast and the students had to be evacuated to their dorms?" Arthur shook his head, while Molly seemed to know something.

"Percy wrote me about it," the red headed woman explained, "but I just assumed it was a prank or something that the school took a little too seriously. Are you saying there was actually a real troll in the school?"

"Yes, there was." Andromeda continued, "Not only that, but there was a student who didn't attend the feast that found themselves directly in the troll's path through the school. He would have been killed if not for the actions of three other students who were among the only ones to know that he was missing from the feast."

"That's terrible!" Arthur exclaimed, "Whatever damages or injuries happened, I'll do my best to pay for them. I'll give my boys a good talking to this Christmas about taking pranks too far. I'll have to find out where they lured the troll as well."

"You misunderstand, sir." Petunia interjected, realizing after a second what the man probably meant, "Your twins weren't involved in this. The troll in the school was not a prank of any kind."

"Erm, well then." Arthur huffed in confusion, "As much as I am glad that you took the time to inform me about this then, I must admit I'm at a loss as to why you brought it up in this setting."

"The same reason I asked you to send young Ginny upstairs." Mrs. Tonks answered, "The missing student who was almost killed _was_ one of your sons. Ronald. The three that saved him were Harry Potter, his cousin Dudley, and their mutual friend Hermione Granger. All first years."

"That boy has done nothing but get into trouble and get poor grades since being sorted, now he makes three other students risk their lives because he can't be where he's supposed to be!" Molly hissed under her breath.

Andromeda grabbed Petunia's arm to keep the woman from reaching across the table and slapping Molly, "Your son had been pranked by a couple of his housemates and was very sick. He'd apparently been stuck in a bathroom for most of the day. That's why he didn't know about the troll. You would know he's been having these issues constantly if you'd paid more attention."

"Ronald hasn't really tried to contact us since he was placed in Slytherin," Arthur confessed, "I assume it is to keep his housemates from tormenting him over our family's lower status. The only time I've gotten a letter from him was this one time he sent one with Percy's update to my office. I-"

"Incorrect," Petunia interjected, "the child tried quite a few times to write to you." Molly's face was pale as a ghost, an assessment that Petunia now found herself able to make without speculation since seeing real ones at Hogwarts, "According to him, he received many of those letters back, unopened."

"I don't understand how that's possible." Arthur stated without looking at his wife. If he had he would have known the answer without asking.

"Why don't you ask the one who sent him a howler the first week of school, just to call him a disgrace for being sorted into a different House than his siblings?" Petunia asked in a deadpan voice as her eyes drifted over to Molly Weasley. "All of your sons that I've spoken to seem to agree that she's the keeper of the mail in this house."

He looked over at his wife to find her paling even more, "Molly? What do they mean?"

"I told him in the howler!" She exclaimed, "He just needed to get sorted back into a respectable House. There's never been a Weasley that wasn't a Lion, him being a Snake is intolerable."

"You sent him a Howler and returned his mail unopened because you want him resorted?" Arthur was furious, "Ignoring the fact that he's our _son_, and treating him this way is unacceptable. Only the headmaster can overturn a Sorting and, even then, only to protect a student from credible bodily threats." He turned back to the women sitting across from him, "Am I to assume you wish to discuss a life debt between our houses? Mister Potter and the others saved Ron's life."

"Yes and no." Andromeda answered, "The only thing Harry and Petunia want from you is for you to treat Ron like part of your family again. He was being tormented, with no friends, before he took in with Harry's group. According to the children, it's better now but Ron still wishes he could write home about his troubles. At the moment he isn't even sure if he'll be welcome home for Christmas."

"Of course he will be!" Arthur shouted, "Molly, how could you? Our own son doesn't think he's welcome for Christmas!"

"While I agree she was out of line," Petunia said, "little Ginny is still upstairs, it would not do for her to hear you yelling at each other. Perhaps save that for when you can yell without being heard?"

"I agree ma'am, I apologize for my outburst." The Weasley patriarch said, "But seriously, whatever you think is fair for saving my son's life is-"

"No sir," Petunia interrupted him, "Harry saved Ron because they are friends, and there are no debts like that between friends. We would only have pushed the matter if you seemed to agree with how your wife was behaving. As long as you work to make sure Ron feels welcome here, that is all Harry or I would ask of you."

"Were any of the children actually hurt?" Molly asked, her face looked like a switch had been flipped inside her and she'd finally seemed to realize that one of her own had almost died.

"Harry was hurt pretty badly," Andromeda answered, to keep Petunia from having to discuss her nephew's injuries again, "his legs were hurt, but Madame Pomfrey had him right as rain in a day or so. Ron twisted his ankle, and Miss Granger burned her hand in the magical outburst that incapacitated the troll. But all of them are fine now. If you've got time after dinner, I could tell you the story of what happened. We got it out of the kids that night after Professor Mcgonagall brought us to the school to see them."

"Why wasn't I contacted?" Molly asked.

"Ron said he asked the teachers not to," Petunia answered, feeling sorry for Molly as the woman began openly crying when she finished, "he seemed honestly worried you might have yelled at him or even congratulated the troll."

Her mother's crying meant that no one heard Ginny, hiding in the next room, also distraught over what she'd heard. _Her brother had almost died? _Harry Potter_ had almost died saving him?_ It sounded to Ginny like Harry's life was just as exciting as it was in her story books, but in real life good people got hurt. In her stories only the bad wizards and monsters did.

"Why don't we pick ourselves up with some dinner, I assure you these problems will be addressed." Arthur said to break the melancholy after his wife had finished crying after a couple minutes, "Molly has cooked a ham for us, and some things fresh from our garden to go with it. Just let me run and tell Ginny she can rejoin us." As he finished speaking, all four heard the pattering of little feet rushing back up the stairs.

"Oh dear." Arthur drawled as he rose to check on his daughter, "I'll be right back."

While he was gone, Andromeda and Petunia offered to help Molly bring the food to the table. She raised an eyebrow when Petunia carried a platter by hand, Andromeda levitated the ones that she carried…

Mister Weasley returned a couple minutes later with a red-eyed daughter who had clearly just stopped crying.

"She heard basically everything." He said as he held Ginny close.

She stepped forward after receiving a pat on the shoulder from her father, "I'm sorry for listening after you asked me not to." She said with her eyes on her toes.

"It's alright sweetie." Petunia told the girl as she pet her head, "You should know that sometimes adults keeping things from you are just trying to keep you from being scared for no reason. I promise, your brother is fine, his ankle was already fixed by the time I got to the castle that night."

Andromeda suggested that they tell the story over dinner, which led to Molly complaining that that wouldn't be appropriate for Ginny, but she spoke over the woman, "There is nothing inherently scary about the story besides the troll itself. Honestly, I think it will sound a lot like one of her story books, Harry and Hermione did something truly special to save your son. Her imagination is sure to create a picture worse than reality if we don't tell her the truth."

They began their story with Ron getting sick in the bathroom, then explained that the boy who had put puking powder on his muffin was given two weeks straight of detention and a loss of house points. Petunia's disgust at house points as a punishment was evident throughout.

"They really lifted a troll in the air?" Arthur Weasley asked incredulously after his guests had finished telling about his son's rescue.

"Who's Hermione?" Ginny asked, ignoring her father's question.

"She's a friend of Harry and Dudley from before Hogwarts," Petunia answered the girl first, "she's also one of the only people in their year that can beat Harry's grades. And yes, they apparently lifted the troll so hard that it conked it's head on the stone ceiling and was knocked out." They weren't about to say the troll had been killed in front of a ten-year-old

"Too bad Harry didn't have the strength to move afterwards." Andromeda added, "He looked dreadful with all the bones in his legs gone, but at least he didn't lose his head over it. Right before he was put to sleep he was asking questions about the healing process that I wouldn't have expected from a first year."

"But he's really alright, right?" The ten-year old in question asked, her face a mask of worry.

"Of course," Petunia insisted, "he even flew in a Quidditch game last weekend. He caught the Snitch and won the game for his team. It was spectacular to watch, though I wish the stands weren't so far up. I don't like heights very much."

"You actually went to Hogwarts and watched the game?" Molly asked, "I didn't know that was allowed."

"It's not against any rules," Petunia replied, "you just have to floo to Hogsmeade and walk or take a carriage if one is available. We actually had lunch with the children after the game."

Molly frowned, "I might have to surprise the twins by coming to see their next one. I've heard stories, but I've never seen it for myself."

"Those two were pretty strong with their bats. I can't tell you much more than that because I was too busy watching Harry."

"Speaking of Mister Potter again for a moment," Arthur said as he finished the last of his food, "I've heard around the Ministry that Harry and your son can use wandless magic. Supposedly there's even a wandless class being offered this summer?"

"That's correct, Hermione can use wandless magic as well." Ginny gasped at that, but Andromeda continued speaking, "Professor Flitwick is planning on offering a class on wandless magical control based on their success, but it is supposed to require pairs with at least one being muggle raised. Part of the class will involve getting away from all magic of any kind for an extended period. If any of your sons find a partner I would highly recommend letting them go."

By the time Ginny was sent upstairs for bed, Petunia felt much better about Ron Weasley's situation. His mother was planning to write an apology letter to him soon to make sure the poor boy knew that he was always welcome home for the Holidays.

"Speaking of the Christmas Hols," Petunia added, "We were planning to invite several of our children's friends over for some time during the break. Ronald was one of those they wanted to ask about. We're planning to spend the time on one of the Potter family's warded properties."

"I don't know…" Molly demurred.

"There will be plenty of adult supervision. We are going to be there for a week and different friends from Hogwarts are going to be visiting at different times, whenever they were available." Petunia explained, "Think about it, if you will."

"Ginny could probably be invited as well, space depending." Andromeda added, "There is a family with three pre Hogwarts children that maintains the property. Plus, there's a muggleborn girl that lives near the Dursleys that will be joining them as well. She'll be in the same year as Ginny."

"It _would_ be nice for her to know someone before going to the castle." Molly Weasley thought aloud, "She hasn't spent much time with Luna Lovegood since the poor girl's mother died, and there aren't any other magical children around here."

When the discussion moved to Arthur's Muggle Protection Act, Molly tried to get Petunia to go to the other room with her only to be rebuffed by the woman.

"But, you said you… lived as a muggle?" Molly asked, confused.

"That gives her a unique perspective here." Andromeda answered for her new friend, Petunia didn't seem to be receiving the plump woman's judgemental tone very well.

"Indeed, I would love to hear a muggle's perspective," Arthur exclaimed happily, "though I'll have to keep your involvement a secret."

"Actually I'm a squib, So that won't be an issue. I _would _prefer if you let any contribution from me be attributed to 'The Potter Family' if at all possible though."

Molly frowned anew at that, the woman had entered the floo _with_ Andromeda Tonks, not separately, and left to work on the sweaters for her children's Christmas gifts while the other three set about discussing the bill. It quickly became apparent to Petunia that the man who was called the Ministry's top muggle expert had no idea how anything in the non magical world worked. He was even a card-carrying member of the "Eckletrickery" Club.

"For example," The squib explained, "your wording on permitted enchanted items allows for enchanted machines so long as they perform the same function as their muggle counterpart. Unfortunately, for most muggle technology that has more than one moving part nowadays the 'how' is more important than the 'what.'"

"Could you be more specific so I understand what you mean?" The man asked, this was exactly the kind of thing he needed to nail down the wording. Most of the other Ministry heads or Wizengamot members working with him had simply assumed he knew what needed to be done because he was Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Department. The Minister had apparently never learned that obsession was not the same as experience.

"Suppose a wizard wanted an automobile to visit muggle or muggleborn friends but doesn't want to worry with fuel, so he enchants it to run on its own." Arthur gulped as Petunia elaborated, "No gasoline required. The way both your bill and the current law are worded, that would be allowed. But that is a horribly dangerous risk to secrecy. If a muggle stole the vehicle they would know within a few days that there was something odd about it. They have to be refueled every few hundred miles depending on the vehicle. One can argue that you could simply require tracking to prevent theft, but that is an extra step that still risks secrecy."

"What made you pick that example in particular?" Mister Weasley inquired, visibly upset.

His guests both smirked at him, "Should I make a point of not asking what kind of projects you get up to in your work shed, Mister Weasley?" Andromeda joked.

When the man sputtered a failed response Petunia took pity on him, "Actually, when Harry was very little he used to have dreams of a magical flying motorbike. I was reminded of it when I was skimming your bill and got to thinking more about it."

Arthur Weasley had hoped that he would be getting a promise of support and maybe some points of advice for revising the bill. Instead, when the two women left the Burrow after discussing it with him for almost an hour, he was left wondering if it was going to be possible to present by Easter, Christmas was certainly out with as many revisions as were going to be needed.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Albus Dumbledore sighed in momentary contentment as he took a sip of tea in the VIP waiting room of Gringotts, his secret was putting a lemon drop in the tea and letting it dissolve as he drank. He had spent the better part of two weeks preparing for this encounter, his reckoning with Ms. Acacia, no… Mrs. Dursley. How the woman was a squib he would never know, but he had been shown the blood tests performed by Gringotts last January that confirmed it. That had been the last mark against his secret wish that this was all a prank set up by Remus. If anyone could figure out how to sneak a muggle into Hogwarts it would have been one of the Marauders. But Gringotts shot down his hopes. He couldn't deny the truth, just be puzzled by it.

She was understandably angry at how he had handled the Potters' affairs, especially Harry Potter personally, and he needed to make sure his arguments were airtight. Getting Petunia Dursley and Remus Lupin on his side was paramount. It didn't matter if he could somehow wrangle guardianship of Harry back if the boy would resent him for life over it. Most of the monetary decisions he had made he felt would be easy to wave away, but his decision to freeze all Potter businesses would be a hard sell. Hopefully it wouldn't matter too much to his "interrogators," the Potter family subsisted mostly on royalties from past accomplishments (particularly Sleekeazy's Hair Potion) and a vineyard in France. The vineyard had been shut down to keep Albus from having to look at the paperwork, but the royalties had continued to be deposited into the account.

His only worry was that he had overestimated the actual size of the Potter fortune. With Gringotts unwilling to work with him on accessing anything except Harry's trust vault without proof of how the money would be spent, he had been forced to simply empty said vault of it's thirty-thousand Galleons to use to begin fighting against the Dark on the Wizengamot and wait for it to refill itself yearly on the First of January. He hadn't needed the full thirty-thousand every year, but he had simply assumed that the Potter vaults weren't going to be significantly hit by his spending. Looking back, he realized he'd used quite a sight more of Harry's money than he'd realized.

"Ms. Acacia has just entered the conference room." The gruff voice of a goblin broke Albus out of his contemplation, "Follow me, wizard."

The conference room he was led to was much more welcoming than most in the goblin bank. There was a low burning hearth on one side that gave it a warm glow, and the meeting table was low-set with comfortable looking couches on either side rather than office chairs. Petunia Dursley and Remus Lupin were already seated in the room enjoying tea and biscuits, and sitting on either side of one Vernon Dursley.

"Ah, welcome Headmaster Dumbledore. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us about this _before _the holidays." The large man in the middle said, standing to shake Albus's hand as the aged wizard sat down. He noted that there were no goblins in the room, something he didn't expect from a conference in Gringotts.

"Before you ask," Petunia said from her husband's side, "we felt you would be more open if it was just us. But understand that while no one outside may be listening, everything we say here is being recorded. Just in case we feel the need to fact check."

"I… suppose that is fair." Albus conceded, "Where would you like to start today? I hope that I answered most of your concerns regarding Harry, himself?"

"Hardly," Vernon griped, "but every magical we've spoken to has agreed that you are basically like if Winston Churchill was also the strongest man alive. Nothing less than murder or abuse of a minor would actually see you punished by the courts."

"Er… I suppose that is one way of looking at it." Dumbledore conceded, "Though I never have."

"Why don't we start with going through why you felt it was okay to use my nephew's inheritance to pass your legislation?" Vernon returned, "Why couldn't you use your own money?"

_Simple questions first_, "Because I did not have the funds needed to do so. The House of Dumbledore is neither noble, nor wealthy, and simply having a seat on the Wizengamot doesn't entitle one to wealth."

"What about your other positions?" Remus asked, "Chief Warlock? Supreme Mugwump?"

"My salary as Supreme Mugwump is no different than that of a common ambassador to the ICW." The old man replied, "As well, the Chief Warlock doesn't get paid a salary. It is the same stipend for all sitting members of the 'Gamot to compensate for lost time."

Albus pulled out one of the few, small, folders he had brought to this meeting. This one showed the financial information for a charity that puts lower income muggleborn students through Hogwarts, "As for my salary from the school, I have it paid directly to this charity, along with my ambassador's salary. I have done so since becoming Headmaster and Mugwump respectively. Even then, you can see that it is not an impressive amount. I live almost exclusively off of my Wizengamot stipends, as most of my basic needs are provided by Hogwarts."

Vernon looked furious at Dumbledore's answer, 'I give all my own money away' wasn't exactly a viable excuse in his estimate. But only a monster talks down about a man's honest charity.

"If I had thought that simply cutting off those donations and using my own funds would have worked I would have tried to do so." Albus huffed, "You must understand the context, particularly in the early days after the war's end. Many Dark families claimed Imperious, mind control, to get out of sentencing. Those people then immediately began trying to legislate their dark agenda once more. The first time I reached into Harry's vault though, was to prevent a direct attack on him and you."

"Explain." Petunia and Vernon bid together.

"Lucius Malfoy, as well as his father Abraxus, may he rest in peace, were trying to get custody of Harry." Dumbledore explained, causing the two raised outside the magical world to look questioningly at their magical advisor. Remus was paler than normal as he pondered all that could have gone wrong if the Malfoys had taken Harry.

"The Malfoy family was generally accepted to be You-Know-Who's main financial backer." The werewolf explained, "And Lucius, I _believe_, married Narcissa Black. She would be Andromeda's younger sister."

"Indeed," Dumbledore concurred, "Lucius Malfoy was trying to use his relationship with Harry through the Blacks to get the boy placed in his care. My sealing of the Potter wills to keep any allied families from asking about him unfortunately made his case stronger. For the first few years I used money from Harry's trust vault to keep Lucius tied up fighting legislation in the Wizengamot, while also using some of it to keep private investigators the man hired from being able to track you to Privet Drive. In the moment, I didn't have time to wait. I needed to begin work before Malfoy found your married name. After I did it once, it became easier to justify coming back when something else that would protect Harry came up."

"What about the werewolf laws?" Petunia asked testily, "You have to have known that wouldn't have been something Harry's parents would support." She and Vernon had found some of the wind taken from their sails at the bombshell that a known Death Eater who'd escaped punishment had tried to use his _familial relationship_ with Harry to find him.

Albus frowned at that and poured himself a new cup of tea while he thought about how to answer, "No. The Potters would not have pushed for those restrictions the way I did. But… I had to take the chance when it was presented. It pushed Malfoy into a corner, either he comes out in support of werewolves or he stabs another of Voldemort's lieutenants in the back."

"Greyback." Remus whispered under his breath.

"Fenrir Greyback, and what was left of his pack, left England about five years ago for a werewolf village in Scandinavia. Remus, I'm sure you can agree that that is a _good_ thing."

"Who is Fenrir Greyback?" Petunia asked, "He sounds like a character out of Lewis or Tolkien with a name like that."

"Greyback is the _monster_ that bit me when I was five years old." Remus answered.

"Monster?" Petunia was genuinely shocked. Remus occasionally referenced other werewolves, but the only one he ever referred to as a _monster_ was himself, his self degradation was worst right around a full moon.

"He is truly evil." Remus continued, "He likes to set himself near isolated families right before a change to make sure he attacks humans, with a preference for houses with multiple children. He'll even target muggle hamlets and such, if there aren't any wizarding homes within range on the night of the full moon."

"Does that make a difference?" Vernon asked, "Magical or not?"

"Most muggles simply don't survive the attack, let alone the first transformation." Albus answered, Remus was clearly getting uncomfortable being the one talking about Greyback, "But even if they do, without magic there is no way they can repair the muscles and bones in their body post-transformation. I've never heard of a muggle werewolf surviving more than three full moons before their body simply falls apart."

"That's terrible." Petunia sighed as she took a long sip of tea.

The four spent the better part of that Saturday afternoon discussing what had happened over the last ten years. Albus was forced to recall the specific details of far more transactions than he had prepared for, Vernon Dursley apparently didn't get to be one of the heads of his department by missing out on details, but recall them he did. The family seemed to understand his claim that the managing of the actual Potter Estate was just one job too many after all his other titles. Especially after he insisted that he would have turned over the reigns had he known that that was an option. By the end of it, Albus felt he had managed to persuade the Dursley family that he wasn't simply a thief in the night stealing Harry's money for his own political ends.

At least, he thought so until he was grilled about the sanctions against Gringotts that he supported after the war.

"I knew that Gringotts was sitting on information that could remove certain Death Eaters from their seats in the Wizengamot." He defended himself, "Proof of bribes and hiring of mercenaries and thugs, it could have turned the war long before Halloween."

"I agree that it would have been wonderful, my sister might even still be alive." Petunia answered, "But as it stands, Gringotts was _forbidden_ from helping. They aren't allowed to interfere in wizarding wars, and the Ministry was _officially_ at war with Voldemort. Axegut informs me that the motion to declare war was made by a Dark family, he even implied that it was by Voldemort's design. If so, it would have been specifically to keep Gringotts from helping."

"Magical treaties between nations don't _force_ compliance, they can't." Dumbledore returned, "They could have shared what they knew and then, even if the families they informed on complained, when the Ministry won the war they would be thanked for their assistance."

"Ridiculous." Petunia muttered, "Your Ministry is full of corruption and bigotry on both sides of your 'light and dark' debate. It is so ingrained in your culture that even someone like Andromeda Tonks couldn't help it a little." Remus glanced at her in puzzlement, "When we spoke of replacing Amos as Harry's proxy she went out of her way to make sure he wouldn't be burned by anything. 'I understand, but he's not actually a bad man himself' is more or less what she said. Well I'm sorry, he may not be a 'bad' man, but he isn't a 'good' one. Not as violently bigoted and entitled as he is."

She was still peeved at Amos Diggory, the man had written multiple letters _demanding_ the proxy seat back. Apparently he felt he was owed a chance to vote the seat while being in correspondence with Harry. Her and Andromeda's reply that his stance on certain issues was uniquivicably known, and were the primary reason he had been replaced, just caused more mail. His most recent correspondence actually included a promise of retribution the next time the full Wizengamot met, on the night of the Solstice when Arthur Weasley had originally intended to present his bill.

"Anyways," she concluded, "there was no way that the goblins could trust you to understand. I have heard the adage that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission, but the man who spoke those words was thinking of individuals, not nations."

"I suppose that it true." Albus sadly confessed. This was not the stance he was expecting the Dursleys to take about all of this.

"This has gone on most of the afternoon at this point," Vernon said as he stood up to stretch, they'd already had to take a break to relieve themselves after drinking multiple pots of tea and it was getting to be that time again, "so I believe we should wrap up for the day."

"Indeed." Albus said, nodding, "Sir, madam, you and I all know that I will never be able to return the money I used from Harry's accounts were we to be able to parse out exactly what I do or do not owe him back. Perhaps I can make amends in some other way in the future, but for now all I can offer is my condolences for not checking on Harry and realizing your situation sooner."

No one in the Dursley party left Gringotts that day happy with how things had gone. Vernon was peeved that the old man had presented solid arguments about Harry's safety, after almost a year to grow more and more spiteful towards the man it was anticlimactic for him not to be the mustachioed bad guy. It turned out that the man was grossly negligent, not realizing that several of the royalty incomes that were present in 1981 had run their duration, and nothing necessarily sinister. Despite that, Petunia couldn't help but think that there was something she was missing, something important, in the way Dumbledore was interested in Harry. Remus was conflicted, on the one hand he was ecstatic to know that his home country was no longer beset by Fenrir Greyback, but was the human cost in werewolf hardship _really _worth that? Several mainland governments had taken to modeling their werewolf control after Britain in the past five years, mostly in the eastern portion of the continent.

Albus Dumbledore sighed in relief as he flooed directly from Gringotts to his office in Hogwarts. That was a much more arduous meeting than he had expected, but at least he had the tenuous trust of the Dursleys for the time being. He needed to make a point of going back over all of his affairs again, clearly he had been slipping for a while. Now to make sure Harry Potter didn't get them _both_ in trouble looking for the Philosopher's Stone again. The Mirror, the last piece of the Stone's defenses, was scheduled to arrive in the next two weeks and he needed to make sure he had all the enchantments he intended to add for protection ready to go.


	20. Chapter 19: Magic Mirror in the Hall

Magic Mirror in the Hall

**Sunday, Dec. 1st**

"What if he's sick or something?" Dudley asked as Harry, Hermione, and he trudged out to Hagrid's house. No one had seen the giant man in a few days, and Harry was a little worried that something might have happened to him. Very few people actually checked on him after all.

"Then he shouldn't just hole himself up and not tell anyone." Harry replied, "We need to at least make sure that he sees Madame Pomfrey if he's sick."

It turned out that he wasn't sick, Hagrid happily answered the door when they knocked and let them in. It was strange that the large man had such a huge fire going in his hearth, the cottage was so hot that the three first years had to remove their outer robes to keep from overheating almost as soon as they went inside.

"What can I do fer ya, Harry?" Hagrid said once he'd sat down with tea for his guests. Hot tea they weren't likely to be drinking any time soon.

"We were just making sure you were okay Hagrid," Harry replied, "we haven't seen you in the Great Hall for meals in almost a week now."

"Well, I've been a little occupied." The man answered, glancing towards his roaring fire nervously as he did, "Not had much chance to leave in a while besides takin' care of the animals."

"Are you sure you aren't sick?" Hermione asked as she fanned herself, "You don't normally keep your house this hot."

"Yeah, are you okay?" Dudley asked as he edged over to the fire, it was almost coming out of the hearth it was so big, "This doesn't even look safe does it. Wait… it can't be."

"What's up?" Harry asked at the same time Hagrid said, "Get away from there now, you'll hurt yourself!"

"Is that what I think it is?" Dudley asked as he backed away, pointing into the fire at a smooth black stone that was barely visible through the flames.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, edging closer to the fire to try and see.

"It looks like an egg." Dudley replied as he watched Hagrid's reactions. They had all found that their giant friend was pretty much incapable of keeping his emotions off his face when he was talking.

He did not disappoint. Hagrid's face covered the range from shock, to fear, to embarrassment, to anxiety as he stumbled over his attempts to answer Dudley's seemingly innocent question.

"An egg in the fire? That's not how you…" Hermione was going to say that you needed water to boil an egg, but now that she could see it she could tell that this was no chicken egg. "Hagrid! Is that real?"

"Yep," Hagrid answered proudly, obviously deciding that any attempt to hide it was doomed at this point, "it's a real dragon egg! Won it in a card game at the Hog's Head!"

"What are you planning to do with it?" Harry asked, squinting as he gazed into the hearth to see the egg as well.

"I'm gonna raise 'im." Hagrid said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You live in a wooden house!" Hermione shrieked, "What happens when it burns down and the dragon starts wandering in the Forbidden Forest?"

"Tha' won' happen Hermoine." Hagrid insisted, "I kin raise a dragon jus' fine! I raised Fluffy from a pup didn' I?" He covered his mouth after he spoke, realising that the children were _not_ supposed to know about his cerberus.

"Fluffy?" Harry asked, "Is that the cerberus' name? I figured he was yours." At Hagrid's shocked expression Harry explained how he had come to know about the giant dog on the third floor.

"Yeh shouldn'ta been sneakin where ya weren't meant tah be, Harry." Hagrid said after he had been filled in, "But Dumbledore changed all the wards around the door, so yeh won't be gettin' in there again."

"You don't have to worry about me going back there," Harry insisted, "I was scared half to death. But seriously Hagrid, Hermione is right. What are you going to do when that dragon hatches and starts breathing fire everywhere?"

"S'like I told the man at the pub, I'm good with bigger critters. Raised a cerberus, and an acromantula. Dragon's just the next thing, S'logical." Hagrid's bravado wilted a little under the incredulous looks of the children, "Maybe I should see 'bout gettin' in touch with a dragon reserve, just in case. Shame there's none in Britain… but I don' need to be worryin' about that till the little tyke starts breathin fire an' all. Most don't fer the first few months or so."

"We should tell Ron. _You _should tell Ron." Dudley said out of nowhere, looking at Harry.

"Huh? Why?" Harry asked, he was still a little annoyed at his Slytherin friend since finding out that he'd been beat up by his house's Quidditch captain after the first game. When asked why they hadn't heard about it, Ron had gone off on him about being able to protect himself and the two had been at odds since. Dudley had been going out of his way to hang out with Ron and his two friends in Slytherin, Daphne and Tracy, sometimes, to try and help the two reconcile. Harry didn't understand why Ron was so angry in the first place, they were just trying to make sure he was okay!

"If you weren't so stubborn and hung out with him again then you'd know that one of his brothers works on a dragon preserve." his cousin replied, "I think its in Romania or something. We could ask Ron to get in touch with him and see if they could take Hagrid's dragon. But not before he's too big to handle." Dudley was quick to add the last when Hagrid's face fell at the thought of losing his new pet before he'd even met him.

"Suppose that would be best." Hagrid said as he watched the egg sit in the flames, "But don' be writing before its time."

"We won't Hagrid, not until it's getting to be too much for you," Hermione promised, "But do any of the professors know about this?"

"'Course not, dragons are illegal in Britain. Can't be telling the headmaster, might get him in trouble."

Hermione gaped at the man, _of course _dragons were illegal. At least _some _of magical Britain's laws had to make sense, though she wouldn't really know since there were basically no books on them in the library.

"Someone should know." She asserted, "Just in case something goes wrong Hagrid."

When he seemed reluctant to agree, Harry offered to tell Dumbledore during his next special class. That way no one else would know but the headmaster and Professor Mcgonagall, who would be able to come help if the need arose. Hagrid eventually agreed to that. After all, if Dumbledore didn't think he should do it when he allowed a cerberus in the school then it probably _was_ too dangerous. Plus, they all knew how much the headmaster seemed to let slide as long as no one asked first, and in this case they already had a plan for getting the dragon out when the time came.

"What are you gonna name it?" Dudley asked, drawing the conversation back to a more amicable atmosphere.

"I was thinkin' 'Norbert' if its a boy." The big man replied, "Haven't given much thought tah if its a girl."

Harry and Hermione ended up pulling Dudley out of Hagrid's house to work on a transfiguration essay an hour later. He and Hagrid had talked about dragons and other borderline-monsters for almost the entire time, a recurring theme of his visits with the groundskeeper. His exuberance for Hagrid's creatures was leaving the other two worried that Dudley was going to try for a career in dangerous animals or something. From what they'd heard so far it sounded like Auror, his original plan, was a much safer job.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**Saturday, Dec. 14th**

"Furthermore, due to the intensive nature of the practical work associated with this venture, the board has agreed that a year's credit of muggle studies coursework will be awarded for any participants that do not cause excessive issues during the camp. This credited year will be whatever the next sequential year of schooling would have been for each student in question. We look forward to seeing many of you this summer." Professor Flitwick concluded his speech to the school, sans most of the first and second years. It hadn't escaped the charms teacher's notice that the majority of the first years that did attend were the ones closest in Harry Potter's friend group.

There was a lot of restless murmuring in the audience after Flitwick had finished his speech concerning the course for wandless magic. The loudest murmuring was coming from the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables; neither group liked the idea that muggleborn somehow had an advantage, though each for different reasons.

"Harry, Hermione!" The Weasley twins called from a few seats away, "Would you be our muggle-raised buddies? I'm sure the school would make an exception for you!"

Harry laughed, "The headmaster already asked us to come and help out everyone at the end, when the casting starts, but we had some other plans for the rest of the summer. Why not ask Lee Jordan?"

"Cause he's partnering with Katie Bell, lucky sod." The one Harry thought was George responded, "And Alicia is taking Angelina. It's no fair that it's one-to-one."

"It just makes sense," Hermione returned, "most of the teachers and counselors at the camp will be muggleborn, or parents of, but not all of them. Keeping the ratio like that is just to protect secrecy."

"If you don't get in this year, it might be easier next time." Neville offered from between the two pairs, "My Gran said that if it went well they would reach out to muggleborn that went back to the muggle world and see about making the camp a fixture."

Draco Malfoy sat as one of only two first years from Slytherin House and the only one actually at the table, Weasley was sitting at Hufflepuff with the Dursley mudblood. Draco's father had finally made it back from South America, and was in his seat at the head of the special table the Board of Directors had placed for themselves to attend this seminar.

At first, Draco had been convinced that at any moment his father would stand up and end the charade. After all, it was ridiculous enough to be taught by mudbloods, but to spend a month and a half learning muggle activities from actual muggles? That was beyond the pale, and his father would surely insist that such wasn't necessary. Draco himself had already figured out that he could just get his family to take an extended vacation and minimize magic use while abroad and probably achieve the same result, so why was his father letting this continue? He squinted as he tried to make out his father's features over the distance, he seemed to still be a little off-colour from whatever disease he'd suffered. Perhaps he was simply too weak to voice his protest.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than Lucius Malfoy stood up and cast a _Sonorous_ voice amplification charm on himself. Normally he would not have needed to do so for his voice to carry, Draco frowned before realising that his wish was about to be answered and smiled again.

"The Board has decided that the second-year age restriction will be rescinded in light of the muggle-raised-partner requirement. Any young witch or wizard who has completed a full year of schooling will be allowed. In addition, children of those in the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artefacts, as well as the DMLE's Muggle Liaison Division, will count as 'muggle-raised' for the purposes of this camp." He said, his magnified voice echoing through the Hall. It was no large concession as far as he was concerned, the Weasleys were the only children from the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts department. And if one of them caused an incident? All the better. The Muggle Liaison Division hadn't been staffed in eight years, he'd personally seen to it's systematic defunding.

While twin Gryffindors were dancing jubilantly at the news that they would be able to go to the wandless camp, Draco Malfoy was seething. It was painfully obvious to him why those two announcements had come together. He was to convince Ronald Weasley to partner with him and go to the camp that way. Perhaps he could convince his father that wasn't necessary over Christmas break, but it was too late to reinstate the restrictions now…

Those jubilant Gryffindors were not so happy after the students left for bed. They were pulled aside by their Head of House and informed that their "Wandless Camp Privileges" were directly attached to them staying out of detention, as well as keeping a positive point total in the House Cup. Neither twin felt that they'd make it until Summer under those rules, which meant alternative solutions were required. Ron had apparently been invited to spend time with Potter and Dursley over Christmas break, maybe they could get in on that?

"Hey Ron," Harry called as the Slytherin turned to head for the dungeons at his approach, "wait up for a minute."

Ron stopped, there was hardly anyone else in the hall at this point since the older years had left the seminar first, "What's up Harry?"

"Can we talk for a minute?" He asked, indicating a classroom nearby, "In there? Don't wanna be overheard."

Ron only agreed because Dudley was there. Harry's cousin had understood that Ron didn't need to be saved all the time, that sometimes when crap happened he could handle it himself. Harry had called that selfish and insisted that Ron be more open. Ron reckoned that it probably wouldn't have affected him so much if Harry wasn't just so _much _stronger than him. He got better grades in every subject, and flew better; he was even a better _Slytherin_ than Ron with his snake familiar, and constantly being helped by him made Ron feel looked down on.

"Do you stay in touch with your dragon tamer brother at all?" Harry asked without preamble.

"Charlie? Sometimes, he never comes home but he writes from time to time, why?" Ron furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to think of what his friends could need with his least-seen brother.

"Do you think you could write him a letter soon?" Harry pressed, "You could borrow Hedwig for it if you want."

"Harry, c'mon man." Dudley hissed from behind him.

"Oh, right." Harry blushed, embarrassed, "Ron, I'm sorry about you getting beat up after the Quidditch game because of me, and I'm also sorry for… how I was after. I shouldn't treat you like a kid, and Dudley helped me see that that's what I was doing."

"S'no problem mate," Ron replied, offering his hand to Harry in reconciliation, "if I need you, I know I can ask. I promise. Flint has left me alone since the night of the game, and the only bad part that came of it was I landed on my wand and broke it. Snape was even in a bad mood over whatever hurt his leg and gave Flint detentions. Maybe I'll even get my own wand now instead of an uncle's, since the spellotape isn't making it work. But why were you asking about my brother?"

"Would you believe us if we told you we knew where a just-hatched, illegal, dragon was in Britain?" Harry asked, filing away the information that Ron's wand was broken. They weren't that expensive, and Christmas was coming up… and it was still his fault it was broken, "Also that a friend of ours needs to be able to get him out without getting in trouble? He thought it would be relatively safe for a month or two, but apparently it's a breed that starts breathing fire really early."

Ron just slapped his face with his hand and groaned, "Where did Hagrid get a dragon egg then? Yeah, I can write to Charlie about it. Bloody hell."

"Language Ronald." Hermione piped up, causing Ron to groan again.

"You're like my mother," he complained.

"Hopefully that's a compliment now." She returned, a little worry in her face.

"Yeah, all good at home now I guess." He said, throwing on a convincing smile, "My mum even decided to let me stay with you guys some over Christmas, though knowing her she'll insist you come over this summer or something to make it square."

"That could be cool." Harry answered as he started the group heading back out of the classroom, "I've never been in an actual magical home before. The only magic we have at home is potions, and that's only been for about a year."

"Did your mother ever decide about your sister coming for a few days?" Hermione asked before they broke apart, "Tina mentioned in her last letter that she was really hoping to have a friend in her year before getting on the train."

"I'll write home and ask again," Ron said after thinking about it, "last I heard my parents were still back and forth over Ginny."

"Thanks," Harry replied, "could you write that letter to your brother tonight and we can give it to Hedwig in the morning? Norbert is only breathing about a foot in front of himself at the moment, but it'll start getting bigger _soon_."

"Norbert?" Ron snorted.

"It's Hagrid." Hermione offered by way of explanation as they made they separate ways.

"So," Harry asked once they were on their own heading up the stairs, "why does Tina write you, if you don't mind my asking?"

"She mostly asks for essay prompts from our charms and transfiguration classes." Hermione answered, "I assume she's studying ahead and doing practice homework. She'll probably be in Ravenclaw with Padma."

Harry frowned as he thought about that. The Tina Polkiss he knew was smart, but wasn't really big on studying all the time. She had a tendency to cram for tests and such because she let time get away from her. He eventually shrugged the thought away, it didn't matter what House Tina was in except at feasts and Quidditch games.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**Tuesday, Dec. 17th**

Harry and Hermione crept quietly through the halls of Hogwarts as they followed the Marauder's Map to an unused classroom on the second floor. Harry had noted the headmaster spending inordinate amounts of time in the room over the first couple weeks of December. But he hadn't returned in the last two nights, nor this night it seemed.

Hermione had raised only a token resistance to checking the classroom. Technically it wasn't off-limits, so the only trouble they would get in was breaking curfew. A risk that was barely worth it, but still minimized the threat of being stopped by a ghost or portrait; and _that _was worth it to try and verify Uncle Vernon's new theory about the third floor corridor. Namely, that it was supposed to be some type of test, not a set of defenses or obstacles at all. Harry had agreed instantly upon reading his uncle's letter, but Hermione had taken a little prodding. In the end, she did agree that a troll or cerberus shouldn't pose a threat to a dark wizard, especially one that was after the Philosopher's Stone of all things. If two first-years could knock out a troll with a levitation spell, surely an adult wizard could do it by himself.

The classroom was well out of the way, no one but the Weasley twins would stumble on this by accident, and they found the door locked. However, just like the third floor corridor back in September, a simple Alohamora unlocked it.

"A mirror?" Hermione asked as they checked the room from the door. They had expected it to be empty, but they were looking for any signs that an animal had been kept there recently. According to Vernon, _another_ magical creature or monster would mean that they weren't taking security seriously, or weren't actually trying to protect the Stone in the first place.

"Mirror, Mirror in the Hall." Harry joked, affecting an imperious voice as he stepped into the room with the giant mirror in its center after verifying it to be otherwise empty.

"Magic Mirror, Harry." Hermione corrected. She happened to really like Snow White, despite the less than stellar role model the titular character was.

"Sure, sure… Magic Mirror in the Ha-" Harry abruptly cut off as he stepped in front of the mirror, mesmerized by what he saw there.

"What is it, are you alright?" Hermione asked worriedly, she didn't dare step in front of the mirror unprepared as well incase it was some kind of illusion trap.

"My parents…" He murmured as he glanced behind him and back to the mirror a few times.

"What do you mean?" She asked as she slowly stepped around. Keeping her eyes low to avoid staring at whatever held her friend transfixed allowed her to spot an inscription at the mirror's base, "_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._" She sounded out the inscription as Harry reached out to touch whatever he saw reflected there. Upon glancing up, Hermione was greeted with the image of Professor Mcgonagall, causing her to shriek and turn around in fear only to realize no one was there.

"What do you see?" Harry asked, checking to make sure the door was closed so no one would hear. He thought he'd heard it open again behind them, but obviously it was a trick of the castle or something.

"My parents are there," Harry elaborated, "with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. You're there with your parents, and we're both getting Healer certifications…"

As he spoke, the image that Hermione saw in the mirror blurred, then reformed as something totally different. Originally she'd seen Professor Mcgonagall making her and Harry Head Boy and Girl. Now though, it was like Harry's vision, except for two things. Hermione didn't see Harry's dead parents behind him, only his aunt and uncle, and they weren't getting magical Healer certificates but rather their _Doctorate Degrees in Medicine!_

"Erised… desire?" Hermione thought about the inscription on the mirror, "Harry, look down at this. I think this mirror is enchanted to show you what you want to be or something. 'I show you not your face but your hearts desire.' That must be it."

"You never answered, what do you see?" Harry asked as he looked back at the mirror. His eyes were zeroed onto a spot that was empty when Hermione looked, convincing her that he was staring at his parents.

"Pretty much the same as you." She replied, deciding that she liked the second image in the mirror more than the first, "Except we're getting our non magical Doctorates rather than magical certifications… and your parents aren't there. But mine, and your aunt and uncle, are."

"That sounds wonderful," Harry said dreamily, "do you think this mirror shows the future?"

"It can't." She answered, "Not if you see your parents there. There's no way that magic to bring back the dead could be a good thing. But I think I was right about it showing what you want. What could you want more than for your parents to be there when you finally achieve your dream?"

"Yeah, that makes sense." He said as he wistfully reached for his mother's hand again, only to come upon the reflective glass instead.

"I think we should go Harry," Hermione looked at him with worry. It was clear that he had an unhealthy attraction to this mirror, "the headmaster could still come back or something."

"Indeed, he could." The jovial voice of the headmaster came from behind them, causing the pair to shout as they quickly spun around to face the sound. The old man faded into view after a moment as a silvery bedsheet slid off him into his lap where he was seated in a chair backed against the wall.

"Headmaster, we didn't know you were here." Hermione began to fill the void with words as she calmed down after the fright she'd received.

"No, I assumed not, that wouldn't have made much sense." He answered with a kind smile, causing Hermione to giggle and her tension to leave, "I'm sorry to have startled you two, but tonight was the night I intended to move the Mirror of Erised to its future home on the third floor corridor."

"This is the 'last protection' you were talking about?" Harry asked as he glanced back at the mirror, and his family.

"Yes," Albus frowned as he considered how much to explain to satiate their curiosity, "the Mirror will be the final, as well as the first, defense. For starters, anyone using magic to look for the artefact on the third floor from outside the castle will have to look past the Mirror first."

"And they'll see themselves already having the Stone, because that's what they really want?" Harry asked in understanding, causing Albus' eyes to widen in mild alarm. They knew what the artefact was?

"Indeed, I can't explain how the second line of defense will work as that would defeat the purpose. But I'm glad you understood the first." The headmaster smiled wanly when Harry turned back to glance at his missing family in the Mirror again, "As I said, I intended to remove the Mirror tonight. Originally I was going to place a few more enchantments on it, but Mrs. Dursley indicated that she wanted it in place as soon as possible and many of the other charms were just fluff to be honest."

"Sorry to go snooping sir," Hermione explained, "but Mister Vernon wanted us to find out if your 'last defense' was another animal, if we could. He figured if it was then you weren't really taking things seriously. We'll let him know he has nothing to worry about."

"I understand, and I hope your fears are allayed." Dumbledore fought to smile after hearing how little Vernon Dursley seemed to think of him, "There are certainly more protections than merely a few dangerous beasts. Now, why don't you two head back to Gryffindor Tower before someone less accommodating than myself finds you out at night. Oh, and don't forget to meet me at Hagrid's this Saturday to see off Norbert the dragon."

Albus sighed as he watched the two first years retreat out of the classroom, fingering the Invisibility Cloak in his lap, the Potter Invisibility Cloak… He had thought about offering it to Harry during that encounter to try and earn more trust, but was confident that Petunia Dursley would not react well if she wasn't informed about it beforehand. Especially if the Dursleys already thought that he was planning out some kind of elaborate test for Harry. True, the defenses around the Stone were more to delay than to thwart, but how is one expected to adequately protect against Voldemort himself? As it was, he needed to get in contact with Remus about the Cloak… the heirloom would have more sentimental value coming from the werewolf than from himself.

Sentimental value that was apparently crucially important. When he had realized that the muggle girl Harry was becoming close friends with was actually muggle_born_ he had let it go, but now he had a new worry. It was clear that, despite her amazing skill at magic, Hermione Granger was still tied to the muggle world too tightly. It would be a disaster for Britain if she somehow pulled Harry away from magic before he accomplished his destiny. One that would certainly kill any chance of Harry becoming a Healer like he wanted.

"Neither can live while the other survives…" The headmaster mumbled as he shrank the Mirror of Erised for transport. No, regardless of how much he deserved the chance; Harry Potter would never be able to grow up to be a Healer. With the whispers Albus had heard about movements in the magical criminal circles, Harry Potter would be lucky to grow up _at all_ before Voldemort returned and destiny called.

O0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**Saturday, Dec. 21st**

"No offense Hagrid, but if that's a 'Nortbert,' I'll eat my boots." Charlie Weasley stated as he watched the giant man struggle to 'affectionately' say goodbye to his pet of two weeks. The dragon was thrashing and scratching him, and attempting to set the big man's new, fire retardant, coat ablaze.

"What do you mean?" Dudley asked. He, Hermione and Harry had been allowed to accompany Ron both to meet his brother, and be there for Hagrid when his pet was taken. It was good that Charlie was planning to come when he did, Norbert had managed to light the cabin on fire yesterday and it took Hagrid and Dumbledore together to put it out.

"That's a female." The rugged redhead answered, "A male would be more okay with being pampered like that. You can tell the females from birth because they are more vicious, they'll rip your hand off two hours after hatching."

"You mean Norbert's a girl?" Hagrid blubbered as he managed to get the dragon's head under his meaty head to be pet for a moment.

"Yep, I guess 'Norberta' is more appropriate, but we've gotta get going soon. We need to be over the Channel before daybreak." He waved his two companions over to begin prepping the dog sized dragon for transport via broomstick.

"Your brother is awesome." Dudley said to Ron as they watched him fly away while they comforted Hagrid.

"He's alright. Sucks that he and Bill both up and left the country for work, we never see either of them anymore and they were the coolest part of the family. My parents are actually planning to go visit Charlie over Christmas this year, but whatever Mrs. Tonks said to them made them decide to let me stay with you and Harry during that time instead of reworking their schedule."

"He looks like a magical Crocodile Dundee." Dudley declared with a grin, causing Harry to laugh at the idea.

Ron frowned, not getting the joke, "What does that mean? What's so funny?"

"It's actually pretty cool Ron," Harry explained, "he's a character in a muggle movie. He's a hero who deals with dangerous animals in Australia."

"Could you three stop for long enough for Hagrid to calm down?" Hermione asked, exacerbated, as she stood beside Hagrid and consoled him. The giant man had taken a seat on the lawn, but his head still rested a full two feet over Hermione's, standing.

After spending a few minutes worried that his cries would be heard all the way at the castle, Harry had a brilliant idea, "Hagrid, maybe you could take some time this summer to go visit Romania? I'm sure Norbert, er, _Norberta_ would love to see you again."

Hagrid thought about that for a while as he fought back sniffles, "Poor girl's gonna be missin' her daddy won' she?"

"Yeah, I'll write to Charlie about it later, after he's had a chance to get everything settled, and ask him if you can do that." Ron offered, anything to keep Hagrid from using his robe as a handkerchief like he had Dudley's.

Mister Filch was in the entry hall when the four students returned to the school and was about to yell at them not only for being out after curfew, but also for tracking snow and mud onto the stone floors he had just mopped. He caught himself when he saw Dumbledore and Mcgonagall behind them, and turned and stalked off to find somewhere else to patrol.

"Thank you for helping facilitate that situation Miss Granger, Mister Dursley, and thank you, Harry, for your suggestion that settled Hagrid. Ten points each for your houses seem in order. For you as well Mister Weasley, thank you for helping us get in touch with your brother in such a timely and discreet manner. Now, I have some paperwork for an upcoming Wizengamot meeting I must attend to, good evening, all."

"It was a good thing you did for Hagrid." Mcgonagall said once the headmaster had walked away, "Both in coming to us to keep him out of trouble, and also in helping him find a way to begin to get over his grief. I certainly think that he deserves a vacation. Merlin, I don't think he's ever taken one, and Romania is as wonderful a destination as any." She smiled as the four children warmed themselves by the fire near the entry before asking, "Do any of you have any special plans for Christmas?"

"Parvati and Padma are visiting my house for several days after the holiday." Hermione replied, "They want to see what a non magical home is like," she grinned, "and also to see if a few days to a week away from magic is enough to get wandless casting."

"I see," Minerva wondered the same, "please let Professor Flitwick know if that is the case, and I hope you all manage to have some fun as well."

"We're gonna be staying at one of my parents' properties," Harry offered, "and invite some friends over. We'll be able to fly brooms there and stuff."

"Yes," Mcgonagall sarcastically agreed, "you have to make sure you stay in top form if we're going to win the Quidditch Cup this year."

Harry laughed, and the Professor left the children to split up to their dormitories after finding them that they had an early day to make the train home in the morning.

"Do any of the rest of you think it's weird that the headmaster talks to Harry like he's an adult or something, and the rest of us like students?" Ron asked now that both teachers were out of earshot, "Like, why does he call you by your first name?"

Harry didn't have an answer for that. Though he thought he remembered specifically correcting that very thing the first time he'd spoken with Dumbledore, "I don't know, I'll bring it up next term when I see him. I didn't notice before, but that _is_ creepy."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The train ride back to King's Cross station the next day was much less action-filled than their first trip aboard the Hogwarts Express. With seven people already crammed into the compartment and chatting away, the odds of someone like Malfoy trying to start something were right at nil.

The meeting at the station was almost a scene, though. Petunia, with Remus behind her, got to the group of children first, giving all three of hers a hug before hugging Ron as well. Molly Weasley saw this, and angrily started across the platform before her husband restrained her. He wasn't fast enough to keep the group of children, plus squib and werewolf, from realizing what almost happened though. Petunia decided to toss it up to innocent jealousy and even apologized to her redheaded counterpart. After all, if Harry or Dudley had hugged Remus before her she might have fired him.


	21. Chapter 20: Christmas Break

Christmas Break Part I: Christmas Break

Harry and Dudley were subjected to Petunia's monologue about Hogwarts not giving families proper time to Christmas shop the whole way to the parking lot from King's Cross station. After loading their trunks in the back of the car, the cousins were informed that they would be going directly to Diagon Alley to beat the rush that would surely be there tomorrow. As they set off, Harry was excited to get to talk to Remus Lupin in a more relaxed setting. But that was not to be, the man dozed off in the back seat almost as soon as the vehicle started moving.

"Don't bother him," Petunia said from the driver's seat as she eyed Harry in the rear view mirror examining Remus, "he had a rough night."

It didn't take but a moment for Harry to realize what she meant. You can't attend weekly astronomy classes, even ones using two hundred year old equipment, and not eventually get a rough feel for when astrological events happen. He knew that tonight was the winter solstice, but this year that meant that _last _night was the full moon.

Harry kept his voice low, "He didn't have to be here today, he could have taken a day off or something."

"He wanted to be there the first time you and Dudley see Diagon Alley at Christmastime." His aunt answered, "I always avoided it in the past because I felt I would be out of place, but apparently wizards go all out for Yuletide celebrations. I was quite impressed."

Harry examined his Uncle Moony in a new light, taking note of how tired the man looked. He was paler than he had been back in November, and looked exhausted now that he wasn't actively hiding it as he was back at the station. He also had a slight spasm in the back of his neck, probably from a pulled muscle. Harry was already thinking of something he could get the man for Christmas that could help with his "days after."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Wow!" Harry and Dudley said in stereo as they took in the magical Christmas decorations along the Alley, causing the tired werewolf to grin happily as well. It was like a competition that had long since gone out-of-control, and no two storefronts seemed to have bothered to coordinate their themes or colours. A classical nativity scene, with magically moving camels, was situated on a glass storefront right beside another store where a gigantic tree with traditional Celtic ornamentation stood over a burning log that was advertising 'everlasting hearthfires.'

Vernon fought to keep the sense of wonder off of his face as he took in the sights as well; he had met the others at the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron after taking care of some last minute paperwork at the office. Unfortunate, but at least he wouldn't have anything to do with work until after Christmas now. The more he saw of the magical world the more he was entranced by it, though his internal salesman cringed as he observed the apparent arms race of decoration that was going on all down the Alley. Someone should have explained to these shopkeepers that there could be "too much of a good thing."

"We have to go to Gringotts first." Petunia said to get everyone's attention again as she indicated the pure white structure that was the only thing _not_ decked out in some theme of Christmas ornamentation, "Harry, while we are there we need to collect a copy of your parents' wills. I know it's not the best time, but be thinking on the way there if you'd prefer to open them here or at home."

"Okay Aunt Petunia." Harry replied. He had done his best to put that out of his mind since this morning. When they first learned of the wills in his parents' vault Harry had been keen to find out what they said, but as time passed and they were out of reach he lost that feeling. In its place was an odd kind of worry, that actually opening the wills and 'officially' handling his parents' estate would mean he was supposed to put them behind him as well. Harry wasn't ready for that.

By the time they were several floors underground, Harry had decided to open the wills at Gringotts and rip the bandage off, so to speak. They couldn't officially execute the wills no matter what they said, but having legal advice nearby might be helpful anyway.

What they found in the drawer with the wills changed his mind instantly; a pair of letters, signed by his parents and intended for him at ages eleven and seventeen. Harry Potter had enough self control to know that if he read the "Harry at Eleven" letter then he wouldn't be able to shop today, and they weren't planning to come back to Diagon until after Christmas.

With the letter from his parents and copies of the wills, magically created and verified as authentic by the goblins (just in case), in his aunt's purse, Harry and his family set out into Diagon Alley. After minor deliberation, which both children suspected was prearranged, Petunia and Vernon left Remus in charge of the boys and headed off after sharing a conspiratorial look.

"We should start at the Quidditch shop!" Dudley said once his parents were gone.

"We should stop and figure out where all we're going first." Harry countered, nodding his head towards Remus, "The Quidditch shop is near the entrance to the Alley and we can't be going back and forth, Uncle Moony needs to be alert tonight."

"You don't need to worry about me Harry, but thank you." Remus replied.

"You don't understand," Harry added, "Dudley can go for_ever_. If we don't plan a little we'll be going from one end of the Alley to the other until evening."

"You're just frustrated that you aren't as fit as you were." Dudley countered. Harry hadn't been joining them in the unused classroom they had appropriated for working out in very often, and when he'd decided to rejoin them in earnest midway through December he'd been significantly behind everyone except Hermione (she was probably going to get told off by her parents for hardly participating at all) in endurance. Seeing Ernie Macmillan, who had joined the group relatively late in the term, do almost double the number of pushups he could seemed to have finally convinced Harry to stop relying on Quidditch once a week for all his exercise.

A couple minutes to plan a route through the main Alley and they were off, each armed with a small pouch of Galleons, to get things for their magical friends. Moony was invaluable in offering suggestions for things that they could get that their friends weren't likely to already have or be receiving, as well as shrinking bags for the boys so that they wouldn't be totally laden down by the time they were done.

The three waited at the Leaky Cauldron for Vernon and Petunia, who arrived fifteen minutes late grinning like loons. Harry and Dudley tried to pry what they had done out of them as they ate dinner at the tavern before heading home, but to no avail. Neither boy noticed Remus smirking at them as he thought about how their faces were going to light up on Christmas Day.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"At least we know that if we have to go public with them we won't risk losing you." Petunia said as she held a quietly crying Harry after they had read his parents' wills. Sirius Black, Alice Longbottom, and Petunia Dursley; after all the legalese and bequeathals those were the first three names listed to raise Harry if his parents were killed. Black was still in jail, though Remus had left the room after reading the name, and Alice Longbottom was confined to a hospital room.

Dudley and Vernon were in the kitchen rather than the family room to give their loved ones some space, and were startled when Remus entered with a spaced look in his eyes. After standing at the window, seemingly lost for a few moments, the werewolf began making tea; they were going to need something to help stay calm as they discussed the implications of what they'd read.

With two pots of tea to ensure there would be enough for everyone, the five sat around the table in the family room and offered emotional comfort where needed. Harry, with Dudley's arm around his shoulder for support, had read the letter from his parents several times now, trying to commit every word to memory. Meanwhile, Remus explained to Vernon and Petunia a rather vexing issue with the wills, specifically the order of succession for raising Harry.

"It says here, 'Sirius Black, Godfather by Oath,'" the werewolf was explaining, just far away and quietly enough to be out of earshot of Harry talking to Dudley.

"That's just more horrible than I had even imagined." Petunia muttered under her breath, "I believe I met Black one time, Lily introduced me to a few of their friends just before their wedding, Alice Longbottom was there too. I can't believe he would betray them, even breaking an oath to do it."

"That's the thing." Remus said, speaking quickly to keep Petunia on task and not ranting, "Breaking a Godfather Oath should be impossible. It's a variant of the Unbreakable Vow. If the will is correct, and Sirius really swore the Oath, then something is wrong."

"What do you mean?" Vernon asked, "What is an Unbreakable Vow? How is it _un_breakable? Does _fate _keep you from breaking it or something?"

"No," Remus answered, "if you break an Unbreakable Vow then you instantly die. In the case of the Godfather Oath, the vow is to never betray the greater interests of the child."

"But he's in jail?" Vernon's confusion spread to Petunia as they tried to puzzle that out.

"I will need to go to Gringotts again tomorrow and ask around. Maybe the Ministry as well." Remus concluded, "If there really was an Oath taken then it has to be recorded _somewhere_. Gringotts and the Ministry are the most likely locations. There's probably no record at the Ministry though, it would have come out at trial. That leaves Gringotts. I'll also see if I can find out what happened to the things that were in their home when You-Know-Who attacked. It could have been there."

"When you go to the Ministry, see if you can get a hold of trial transcripts or something. It might have come out and Black got around it." Petunia added, "Maybe he said something at trial that would answer how he broke the Oath, assuming there was one."

"Yes ma'am," he nodded, before looking forlornly at Harry and thinking about what the last part of the letter from James and Lily had said, "now we just need to figure out what to do about this so-called prophecy they mentioned in the letter."

_"...Just after you were born, Dumbledore came to your father and I and informed us of a prophecy that potentially concerned you. The prophecy was about Voldemort as well, and Dumbledore tells us that a Death Eater heard the first part of it, the part which seemed to specify 'who.' Your father and I firmly agree with Dumbledore that the only safe place for the true wording is a well-occluded mind, so you will have to ask Frank and Alice or Sirius about it now that you know it exists. Dumbledore may try to tell you that you aren't ready to hear the truth. Do not listen to him..."_

It was unfortunate that it seemed the only person who knew the prophecy was Dumbledore. Especially so because James and Lily's letter suggested that they were already suspicious of Dumbledore's methods. It was highly likely that he wouldn't tell any of them if they asked. Or worse, would lie.

"We can start worrying about that tomorrow." Petunia announced as she stood up to check on her son and nephew, "The boys have agreed to sleep in Dudley's room tonight so you won't have to be on the couch Remus. Thank you again for staying tonight."

"No problem at all ma'am." He responded, "After Amos' threats, I don't mind offering you peace of mind."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Remus slept lightly that night, a feat considering he'd suffered a transformation the night before, but he was aided by a _rather_ sensitive alert ward he'd placed on the property that woke him up twice during the night when Hedwig passed through it.

When Petunia came down the next morning she found Harry already up and preparing tea. He'd pulled out a pair of extra cups, obviously unsure of whether Remus would be joining them early. There was no way the extra was for Vernon or Dudley, those two would likely sleep for another hour or two since there was no school or work today.

"There was a note by the pot from Uncle Moony." Harry said as he gave his aunt a cup of tea to doctor up. He was never brave enough to try and do her cup himself, she never put the same amount of sugar in from one cup to another, "He made a note of whenever something woke him up. I'm gonna have to apologize about Hedwig, she woke him up a couple times and that was it."

"He's still upstairs isn't he?" Petunia asked.

"Yeah, Najash said he was still in my room when we walked by it to come downstairs." Harry took a sip of his tea, finding it still too hot, "Can we meet up with Hermione and her parents to go shopping for our non magical friends today?"

Petunia frowned, "Hermione will be with her parents until Friday, she's grounded. The only exception will be when we meet with your friends from non magical school tomorrow."

"Over Christmas?" Harry whined, drawing a minor glare from his aunt. "I know she didn't keep up with exercising, but she's the top student in our year for a reason! I didn't go to all Dudley's workouts either."

"At least you know better now." Petunia raised an eyebrow to make sure Harry knew that he _did_ know better, "Hermione's parents aren't punishing her, not really. The only thing she's grounded from is talking too much about magic and coming over here. Her parents want a relatively non magical Christmas before they have two extra witches staying in their home for a week. Hermione being in trouble gets her parents their 'normal' Christmas with their extended family. Don't push it."

"Okay." He drug the answer out just long enough to grate on Petunia, but not long enough for her to mention it.

The pair spent the next half hour drinking tea while Harry told Petunia about his favorite classes in Hogwarts. It hurt her to know that Harry's favorite class _wasn't _potions; but rather charms, at least that class would also be helpful for what he wanted. It also sounded like fun. She wasn't sure how much she approved of Harry and Dudley being two of the top students in defense for their year, though after remembering the story of Harry and Theodore Nott she could imagine how that came to be.

"Have you made any progress on that shrinking spell that Professor McGonagall mentioned?" Petunia asked as they heard the sounds of stirring above them, "I know that you've enjoyed those special classes with him, but I still don't think you should spend too much time around the headmaster. He seems too keen to have your trust, I don't like it."

"Uh, I don't know really. I need to keep practicing opening the bond with Najash while I'm here." Harry looked down into his empty cup, "I think you're right, though. About the headmaster I mean."

"Oh?" Petunia asked as she put her own empty cup down, "Do tell."

Harry looked up at her, "It's something Ron noticed the night before last, after his brother had come and taken Norberta."

"Who? _Norberta_?"

"Uh, Hagrid tried to raise a baby dragon," Harry confessed, "and Ron's brother Charlie works on a dragon preserve. So we wrote to him and asked him to come get Norberta the Dragon since she was breathing fire earlier than Hagrid was ready for."

"Why in heaven's name would anyone name a dragon 'Norberta?'" Petunia mused aloud.

"Well," Harry explained, "Hagrid thought it was a boy, so he was originally named 'Norbert.' Charlie told us that it was a female because they're more aggressive."

"As if 'Norbert' was any more reasonable." Petunia shook her head, "Anyways, what about the headmaster?"

"Oh, well. Ron noticed that the headmaster calls me 'Harry', but he calls all the other students 'Mister This' or 'Miss That.'" Harry answered, "I'm pretty sure I asked him to be formal the first time I was in his office, and I'm not sure when he stopped. Ron noticed it when the headmaster left us at the entrance hall that night, and I was going to ask him to stop when I went back next term."

"Good luck." Came Remus' groggy voice from the stairwell, "He's done that as long as I've known him. Though he usually does it to his peers. Personally I think he's trying to subconsciously put people off balance. But I suppose doing that would have the opposite effect on most eleven year old boys."

"Good morning Remus, would you like some tea?" Petunia offered upon seeing how exhausted the werewolf looked, "And regardless of how he acts among adults, it simply isn't proper to be so casual with a child that isn't related to you without permission."

As she handed him the steaming cup, the phone began ringing. Petunia hurried to answer it before it woke Vernon and Dudley and left Remus and Harry to talk.

"So this is Najash?" Remus managed to ask after taking a few sips and wincing at the heat, the serpent hadn't come out from under Harry's sleeve during their trip yesterday due to the cold, "I didn't pay too much attention to him in the hospital wing last month. But he is rather entrancing isn't he."

"Thanks, I think he's great too. I just hope he doesn't grow too big." Harry said as he pet Najash and relayed Remus' compliments to him in parseltongue, "He's grown almost four inches since going to Hogwarts. I need a new book for pressing the shed skins already."

"You keep them all?" Remus asked.

"Yep, sort of a history of growth, you know." Harry answered, "I did it because Aunt Petunia did something like it with me and Dudley." He pointed to the doorframe of the cupboard under the stairs, "She made marks to track our height there, so I did something like it for Najash. Not quite sure what I'm gonna do if he grows to be over a meter long or something. If he did then I would need to get bigger books."

Harry's eyes were mostly on his tea as he laughed nervously at the prospect, which kept him from seeing Remus tense up and almost reach for the snake as he slithered into a comfortable spot on his wizard's shoulders and around his neck. _That is going to take a _lot_ of getting used to,_ the werewolf thought to himself as the serpent eyed him curiously again.

"Harry," Petunia said as she reentered the room, "would you be a dear and fix another pot of tea? Andromeda will be here soon." As she finished speaking, she folded up the _Daily Prophet_. Remus noted that she folded it to hide the frontpage headline from them.

"Is something wrong?" Remus asked once Harry had left the room.

"Mister Diggory apparently made his play last night." Petunia answered, "Andromeda is coming over to speak with us about damage control, that was her on the phone."

"What did he do?" Remus queried.

"I want you to understand that this isn't your fault." She began, "Harry will feel the same way when he gets back and reads this, I just wanted you to get a chance to see it first."

Petunia handed Remus the paper, **"Black Scion Usurps Potter Regency, Appoints Dark Creature as Steward"** was the top article. A massive "expose" by Rita Skeeter about how the Black family was trying to "finish what Sirius the Traitor started" by ending the Potter family; literally _and_ politically. Apparently, Amos Diggory had accused Andromeda Tonks of corrupting Harry Potter with Dark ideologies, and cited Remus' position as the primary evidence. The article couldn't decide if Remus and Andromeda were going to murder Harry in an "accident" or if they were going to turn him to the dark, so it seemed to present both arguments and left it up to the reader to decide which is true. There were calls for the Wizengamot to overturn the Regency posting and to pass legislation banning werewolves from holding any sort of official familial position mentioned at the end of the article.

"I knew this would happen." Remus said, sadly, "I'll look for a suitable repl-"

"You most certainly will not!" Petunia hissed at him.

"Something wrong Aunt Petunia?" Harry asked as he returned to the room.

"Read this." She answered, handing Harry the paper after he set the tea down. "Then help me explain to your Uncle Moony that he isn't allowed to run away."

Harry didn't need to read more than the headline before he launched himself at Remus and grabbed him in a hug. Remus staggered, both from his exhaustion as well as Harry's exuberance, before slowly returning Harry's embrace. _No, he couldn't run away. Not again._

"I've told you that you need to work on your self esteem, Remus." Petunia muttered as she watched the two embrace. He tearfully nodded to her over Harry's shoulder.

"I'm sorry." He replied, "It won't happen again."

"Why don't we send a letter to the Daily Prophet explaining or something?" Harry asked as he looked at the headline again, "It's not even in the right order! You became Steward first."

That thought was put on hold as the doorbell rang. Harry offered to answer it, and returned momentarily with a rather stressed looking Andromeda Tonks in tow. Upon seeing the woman's bedraggled state, Petunia wordlessly presented her with a cup of tea and offered a seat.

"Last night could have gone better." Andromeda said after she'd taken a few sips of tea and verified that the family had read the article. "The meeting was scheduled let out around midnight, and he waited until the last minute to throw around his accusations. The chaos went on another hour or more. By the way, you'll need to change apothecaries for your Wolfsbane Potion."

"You're joking?" Remus angrily replied, "Is _that _how he found out?"

"He presented receipts from an 'anonymous concerned apothecary' who he claimed was initially worried that Harry Potter himself was secretly a werewolf. Then Diggory brought out a magical photo of Remus on the platform by the Hogwarts Express and had an expert on werewolves point out all of the visual and behavioural evidence that you were suffering the after effects of a transformation. The real problem is that the expert insinuated that you would be excessively irritable and pose a danger to those around you that day, and therefore shouldn't have been on the platform."

"That's ridiculous!" Harry shouted before covering his mouth and glancing at his aunt, who put a finger to her lips to have him lower the volume before he continued in an inside voice, "The only person Uncle Moony was a danger to yesterday was himself, he looked like a strong wind would have done him in."

"That was all I saw when I looked at those pictures too." Andromeda answered with a sigh.

"That was the same day as the Wizengamot meeting." Remus muttered.

"The couple of times I've stepped into public in the magical world you have been there." Petunia mused, "You have also served as my go-between in a few instances. He might have assumed that you would accompany me to the platform since, for whatever reason, many people still seem to think I'm a muggle. Even though the paper mentioned that I'd been to Hogwarts."

"I still can't believe that my aunt visiting me at school for a Quidditch game made the front page of a newspaper." Harry said as he shook his head.

"That article actually used your maiden name of Evans to connect you to Harry in the minds of wizardkind." Andromeda explained, "But because everyone 'knows' that you are Lily Potter's muggle sister, they are jumping to the conclusion that Remus or I are escorting you places that you aren't really meant to go. People are pretty split on that, to be honest. Most don't want muggles in the magical world, but others think that at the very least an exception could be made for _you_."

"What do you think about Harry's earlier suggestion?" Petunia asked, getting a confused look from her guest and a smack to her face, courtesy of her own hand, when she realized that Andromeda hadn't been there when he made that suggestion, "I'm sorry, right before you got here he thought of writing a letter to the _Prophet _to try and clear the misunderstandings." She frowned as she thought about it herself, "Would you think on that while I go wake up Vernon? I feel that he should be a part of the conversation as well at this point."

Petunia returned after a couple minutes with her husband in tow, already filling him in on what had transpired the night before. He was blustering about libel laws that apparently aren't strong enough in the magical world to do anything at all only five minutes later. However, his reaction to finally seeing the article on the paper itself left the two magically raised in the room confused.

"Wait a minute." He said, stopping at the byline, "Why does this even matter? I can't understand what that paper is thinking about, putting a gossip columnist on the front pages like this."

"Gossip?" Remus asked.

"Rita Skeeter," Vernon replied, "she's like the paparazzi in our world, following people around and making up stories. I'm not even magical and I can tell that. Some of the things she writes are so outlandishly exaggerated I keep them for when I need a laugh."

"While I'm normally inclined to agree with you," Andromeda said, "Skeeter is somehow a well respected journalist for the _Prophet_. Also, aside from timeline errors like what Harry pointed out, most of the article is factually correct. She spends a lot of time talking about the history of the Black family, and I know that most of what she wrote is true. I wouldn't be shocked to find some minor retractions later, forced by Lucius Malfoy, since I'm not technically a Black and for them, calling me such would be considered an insult to the family. But for the common witch or wizard that nuance will be lost."

"That being said," she continued, "an official statement from the Potter family, particularly one that includes a new photo of Harry in a relaxed setting, could keep some of the light and light-neutral families from jumping ship."

"I still think that you should look for another Steward." Remus muttered, only to get a sharp retort from Petunia.

"Absolutely not, Remus!" She hissed, "Like you said at Harry's Quidditch game, if you quit then you let them win. We are going to fight this because if we don't then I will never be able to feel secure that Harry will be safe." Remus gaped at her, "If they push you out, then what's to stop them from doing it to Andromeda? You both have warned me that the Wizengamot likes to change its laws to avoid being in violation of them. What would I do when they make a law that says squibs can't be magical guardians?"

Vernon put a hand on his wife's shoulder to calm her down, handing her her tea with the other. Once she had calmed down enough, she concluded her rant, "I'd already spoken with Axegut and Griphook about having the paperwork ready to file at a moment's notice, back when I was worried Albus might become overly antagonistic upon learning my identity. If the laws are changed against us then we will be citizens of Magical France the very next morning. Harry's family owns a vineyard in that country that Albus had shut down. I'm sure he would love the chance to work the ground there while we prepare to potentially transfer schools as well."

"Isn't that the same as quitting?" Remus asked, though a half-hearted smirk made sure everyone understood that he agreed.

"No," Petunia replied, "it's playing by _their _rules. If the game is going to be changed whenever the other side starts losing then we can find better people to play with."

"I agree, sadly, that that might be the only way to ensure Harry stays with you." Andromeda nodded, "Though I will do absolutely everything in my power to stop that from happening, if it does come to pass, I will work tirelessly to ensure everyone knows why and because of whom that it did."

As she finished speaking a brilliant flash of fire exploded in the center of the room, causing all those gathering to shout in fear as the two adult magicals hastily drew their wands to point at the intruder. An intruder that turned out to be none other than Fawkes, the headmaster's phoenix. The bird hovered in the air for a moment, releasing a calming cry that cause everyone in the room to relax. With his wand now lowered, Fawkes landed in front of Remus on the table and presented his leg with a letter attached.

_"Remus my boy, I hope this letter gets to you before you beat yourself up over what happened at the Wizengamot last night. If there is anything I can do to help you or 'Ms. Acacia' then all you need do is ask. I was hoping to speak with you before Christmas anyways about something else. I have in my possession a most extraordinary garment that once belonged to Harry's father. I thought you might like the honor of returning the heirloom yourself. If you are free, this morning would be a wonderful time to meet and for me to hand over the garment in question and discuss how I might be of service otherwise._

_ ~Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore"_

Remus frowned over the letter as Dudley came down the stairs, groggily asking what the commotion was. Upon seeing the headmasters phoenix, which he recognized from Harry's description, he couldn't help but grin and reach out to pet the gorgeous bird's head. Fawkes simply leaned into the affection and trilled contentedly.

"Everything alright at Hogwarts Fawkes?" Harry asked as Dudley rubbed under the bird's beak, which elicited a glance and a nod.

"Dumbledore wants to meet me," Remus announced, "it's mostly about what happened last night, but there's something else as well. Fawkes?" He asked, looking down at the familiar, "Could I ask you to wait just a minute longer? I need to ask Petunia something before I go back with you."

After taking her into the kitchen to keep Harry out of the loop, Remus explained to Petunia about James' Invisibility Cloak. As well as the fact that the headmaster apparently had it now. She wasn't too happy with giving Harry a tool for sneaking around at school, something she knew he still did sometimes, but she couldn't argue that having it wouldn't help protect him if someone came after him again. In the end it only took three minutes to convince her that the cloak would make a wonderful sentimental gift from Remus for Christmas, though they agreed that they would need to tell Harry where it had been for the last ten years.

After Remus left with Fawkes, Andromeda thanked the Dursleys for tea and biscuits and made to leave as well, only to be stopped by Petunia once more.

"Before you go," She began, "there is one other thing that happened last night. I was going to get Remus to visit the ministry today and make some inquiries, but that might not be the best plan now."

"Inquiries into what?" Andromeda asked.

"Into why my sister's and her husband's wills state that Sirius Black is Harry's sworn godfather."

**AN: Sorry it has taken me a little longer than planned to get this chapter uploaded. The delay is almost directly proportional to how much longer the Christmas Break arc is than I intended. I hope you enjoy, I'll be back to weekly posting now, but in the future I'm NOT going to let myself run out of chapters. If I catch up to myself again I'll start delaying a week or two at a time to keep a few chapters in the revision stage.**


	22. Chapter 21: Reactions

Christmas Break Part II: Reactions

Phoenix travel was nothing like apparition or portkeys. Despite the dramatic visual effects involved, travel by phoenix fire was the most comfortable and instantaneous of all magical transportation. In this case, there was simply a wave of warmth and light and suddenly the werewolf known as Moony was standing in the headmaster's office, after which Fawkes flew to his perch and began watching the two men in the room.

"Remus, welcome my boy, welcome." Dumbledore smiled and his eyes twinkled as he sat behind his desk, a single lavish chair rested in front for Remus to take.

Seeing a chance to do Harry a favor, Remus decided to nip an issue in the bud, if possible, "Stop right there for a moment, sir. When he came home for break, Harry expressed that he was uncomfortable with you addressing _him _the way you just did me. It doesn't matter when you do it to me, I don't mind. But he said he had asked you not to do that before. Please address him like a regular student in the future."

Dumbledore's expression darkened slightly as Remus spoke. Obviously Hermione Granger had noticed that he was trying to build familiarity between himself and Harry, she and Minerva were the only ones that had been around he and Harry in the privacy of their lessons on the familiar bond. "I will endeavor to correct that, I assure you. It's just that he's so much like James, I have a hard time not remembering him."

"Very well, please work on it. Were you present at the Wizengamot meeting last night?"

"No, unfortunately." Albus lamented, "With Arthur's Muggle Protection Act removed from the docket, and nothing else major coming up, I felt that the meeting would be quiet enough that Augusta could lead while I stayed here and caught up on parchmentwork. I expected that if Amos were going to do something that it would have been more civil to start, obviously I was wrong."

The headmaster offered a lemon drop as he asked, "Would I be allowed to know what you and Andromeda are thinking?"

Remus frowned, if he told Albus that they were already prepared to leave for France then the old man might not side with them, "At the moment, they are insisting I remain as Steward, though I still intend to look for possible replacements. Petunia insinuated that she had a backup plan with Gringotts if Andromeda's regency is taken from her, but I don't know the actual details." Technically true, he had no idea where the Potter Vineyards were besides the country. Nor did he know for sure that the kids would be pulled from Hogwarts, that wasn't necessarily a requirement even if they moved.

Albus misinterpreted the frown, believing that Remus was being kept out of the loop and wasn't pleased with it, "I doubt anything will come of it, though if worse comes to worst I could petition to make Harry a ward of the school. With his aunt being a squib, she could still visit. That would be-"

"Understand something, Dumbledore." Remus interrupted, deciding to try and pull some information out of the headmaster, "Any conclusion that separates Harry from his family will end any chance of him staying in the magical world." He paused a moment to let his words sink in, "Harry is perfectly capable of living completely in the muggle world, and due to his family name his magic wouldn't be bound upon leaving. Besides, it's not like he actually _needs_ a wand anyways."

"A court-appointed magical guardian would ensure that he remained in school until his O.W.L.s were done."

"Oh?" Remus cocked an eyebrow and fought to keep his breath, it was getting really hard to pretend he wasn't exhausted after two nights with no rest, "What happens when Harry throws his wand away and refuses to do work? A magical guardian could force Harry to stay in school, but not to perform there. In that instance, are you planning to just pass him because he's the Boy-Who-Lived?"

In all honesty, Harry would probably just keep his head down and wait until he completed his O.W.L.s, but the headmaster didn't need to know that. Let him stew.

As Remus spoke he watched the headmaster grow paler and paler, and his expression darker and darker. If he'd been a legilimens, the werewolf would have seen a thousand thoughts brought up and discarded in the half-minute the headmaster sat quietly. In that time, the headmaster's most prominent thought was to lament that he hadn't given Harry to a magical family. In hindsight he should have been able to consider at least a few prospects to be beyond reproach.

"Your familiar seems rather cross with you all of a sudden." Remus stated, his eyes drifting to the corner of the room. When Albus turned to look, he found the phoenix glaring at him contemptuously.

It was in that moment that Dumbledore realised that his thoughts had drifted into the rather dark. Prophecy or not, horcrux or not, simply killing Harry if he ran just to end the threat of Voldemort was never going to be acceptable. However, if Harry Potter truly left the magical world, and evaded Voldemort, then the magical world would fall. The headmaster had no illusions that the muggle one would actually succumb; unlike most wizards, Albus knew how to pronounce "Nuclear Warhead," and knew what it meant.

Sighing resignedly, the headmaster responded, "I'm sorry, my boy. I'm sure you understand that if Harry Potter left the magical world it would be a disaster. I will do everything possible to ensure that, at the very least, Harry remains with his aunt and uncle until he comes of age if that is what it takes. Is there anything else I can do to help? Anything at all."

The headmaster assumed Remus would jump on the political ramifications of the Boy-Who-Lived abandoning magic, but the Marauder knew when his leg was being pulled. _Dumbledore_ needed Harry to stay, which meant it was probably about that blasted prophecy.

Thinking back on what he had discussed with Harry's family earlier, Remus came to an obvious answer, "Would you be willing to reveal to the world that I was a werewolf during my time at Hogwarts? And that I was close friends with James during that time, who knew about my condition? Knowing that I went seven years here without ever harming someone would go a long way."

"How would you like me to do that?" Dumbledore inquired. That might actually do some good, for Remus at least. Albus could already imagine the inquiries he would receive, but he hadn't repeated his experiment with Remus a second time. Not after what happened in their sixth year.

"Harry suggested a letter to the paper, but Andromeda thinks that an interview with the _Prophet _would get more done." Remus explained, "If we end up doing that then you could give a quick statement about my condition during school then."

Albus nodded to that and thought about offering suggestions for what to say when he had a startling thought, "I will need to speak with Severus, quickly, so that his temper doesn't ruin this before you have a chance at damage control."

"You think he would?"

"I'm not sure." The headmaster answered truthfully, "Whenever Harry comes up in conversation with him he always speaks rudely of the boy. But Harry seems to like Severus anyways. Regardless, there is no question of his feelings towards you, and him speaking of that incident would destroy your school career as a good character witness."

"If it comes out, we can blame it on Black." Remus answered, waving his hand to dismiss it, "_He_ sent Snape to the Shrieking Shack, even told him how to get past the Willow. Honestly after all these years, I almost blame Snape a little bit. He was a sixth year, what was he thinking, _actually _going out there that night? If he'd wanted to prove himself right he could've waited until morning and caught me returning, like a proper Slytherin." He smirked at the jab as he finished, too bad Snape wasn't actually here to receive it, but he could also tell that his eyes were drooping a bit. _Damn_.

"Would you like some Pepper-up potion?" Albus inquired, while at the same time musing where this self-confidence was coming from. He remembered Remus Lupin as being completely self-depreciative when it came to his disease, "You seem to be worse off than normal for after a full moon. Did you not take Wolfsbane this month?"

"Actually a potion would be lovely," He answered, "and no, I did get Wolfsbane, but I was also up last night after a day of shopping. Diggory threatened retaliation over losing the Potter vote, we didn't want to take chances on what he meant by that."

"So you kept watch last night, just in case?" Dumbledore responded as he called a house elf and asked them to bring the needed potion. The threat was news to him, once more he was reminded how little the Dursleys seemed to think of his abilities.

"Harry and Dudley are friends with Mister Diggory's son." Remus explained, taking the potion with a grateful nod, "I'm not good enough at warding to fully understand the ones around Privet Drive, so we didn't want to risk there being some odd loophole."

"Understood," the headmaster clapped his hands, "now, about James' cloak-"

"Why do you have it, by the way?" Remus interrupted again, "I fully expected it to be destroyed, or stored wherever the effects from Godric's Hollow were placed."

"After they went under the fidelius, I asked to borrow it to see if I could replicate its longevity." Albus answered, "Alas, I could not, even after all this time. It is truly a wonderful Cloak."

Remus nodded in understanding. Cloaks that couldn't be dispelled would have been invaluable back in the war. At least one Unspeakable had secretly been a Death Eater, and he had taught the others the counter charms for the mass produced variety.

"I hope that this will help Harry connect to his father a little closer," Dumbledore continued as he pulled the cloak out of a drawer in his desk, "I'm sure you have all sorts of stories you can share with him about how you and his father used this."

"Indeed sir," the werewolf grinned as he spied the familiar silver cloak, "I am truly looking forward to it. Petunia has told him about Lily, but he hasn't gotten to hear too much of James yet."

"Speaking of Petunia, and the Dursleys in general." Albus segued, "I never found a chance to ask you before, what is your opinion of them?"

Remus frowned anew, "For your information, they are wonderful people. Petunia didn't even blink when she learned of my condition, Vernon didn't care either. They love both of the boys, and it's clear that Petunia thinks of Hermione and Tina as an honorary nieces. They want to remain involved in the children's lives, and the children all seem to want that as well. That should tell anyone anything they need to know about them."

"Tina?"

"Tina Polkiss is the girl that lives a few doors down from the Dursleys," he elaborated, "she discovered she was a witch a bit early because of your wards, but Professor McGonagall decided there was no reason to obliviate her family for only six months. I've been working with her a little on her control, her wandless abilities are as impressive as Lily's were."

"Remarkable, truly remarkable. I look forward to seeing her here next September." The headmaster smiled jovially, he always loved to see gifted minds flourish.

"Sir, there was one other thing I wanted to ask you about before I go back." Remus was more alert after the Pepper-up, and realized that the headmaster could help with their other problem as well, "Harry and Petunia opened the wills last night. You were more or less right in where you placed him, at least. Petunia was third in line after his godparents, who are both… unavailable, due to the war." Albus sighed, relieved at that, "But, according to the wills, _Sirius Black_ was sworn as Harry's godfather, so I'm not sure how much we can trust them. If he's in Azkaban, then there's no way he actually swore the Godfather Oath."

"I will make some quiet inquiries about it." Dumbledore promised, "something may have come out at his trial, though I can't seem to remember it… hmm…"

"Please look into that if you can." Remus asked, "Andromeda was at Privet Drive when I left, so I can assume that she's been informed and will try to find things out. But with what is currently happening, you might have better luck."

"I shall. Please try to have a restful day, however hard that might seem. You look like you need it dearly, if you don't mind my saying so."

"Not at all sir." the werewolf responded, "I have a few errands to run for Petunia to get ready for Christmas, but I fully intend to get some rest first. Good day, headmaster."

After Remus departed via floo, the aged headmaster looked to his familiar, still glaring at him with one eye, "Thank you, my friend. I'm sorry for my moment of weakness."

As he closed his eyes, Albus Dumbledore was reminded of the day when Fawkes first appeared before him, and chose a broken young man to be his wizard. It was the day he had finally realized that Gellert was wrong, and needed to be stopped. The day he finally accepted that his sister's life was _not_ necessary for anyone else's "Greater Good." That was also the day he learned the truth about phoenix; they don't choose wizards who are paragons of light and virtue, not at all. They chose those sorely in need of redemption, but who retained the temperament to accept it when offered. Fawkes stopped Albus from succumbing to despair and hate after the death of his sister, and in the process, the magnificent bird saved his soul from the Dark.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Severus Snape sneered at the back of the headmaster's head as the older man left him in his office. He _had_ been sorely tempted to give a statement about Lupin, it had been the very first thought to pass through his mind as he read the paper. But, try as he might, he couldn't hate James Potter's son like he thought he would. Harry might look like James reborn, but his mind was all Lily.

For the sake of Lily's memory, and his promise to protect her son, Snape wouldn't tell a soul of what happened that night between him, the werewolf, and Black. Though he would find the time to confront Lupin about it, something he had never had the chance to do before, he wasn't about to deprive Harry of the chance to interact with him.

After all, how was Potter supposed to finish Lily's dream of a cure for lycanthropy if he didn't have someone readily available to test it on?

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

When the Polkiss family stopped by Number Four Privet Drive a few hours later to join the Dursleys for Christmas shopping chaos ensued. It had escaped Harry's and Petunia's minds that Timothy was still very religious, and was still only tentatively accepting of magic.

Walking into the family room to find Harry with a mostly red and black snake wrapped around his neck like a scarf was one demonic reference too far for the man to handle. He yelled at the Dursleys about corrupting his daughter with devil worship, which caused the girl in question to break down crying while her brother held her, still not quite sure who to believe. Petunia and Angela ushered all four children into the back yard while Vernon spoke to Timothy, muggle to muggle, about his experience with magic and the truth about Harry's snake.

In the back garden, after calming down the Pokiss's, Harry introduced Tina and Piers to Najash. Piers thought he was the coolest thing ever, even if the snake was a little lethargic from the cold, but Tina was obviously a little put off by the creature until Petunia knelt down and began telling her the story of how Harry and his snake met.

"Oh my!" Angela gasped as she learned that one of her dearest friends had almost died a few years ago. She had grown so used to hearing strange things about wizards that the fact that Harry could talk to snakes barely even registered. Tina held her new Auntie and cried as Petunia assured her that everything was fine, and that they had Najash to thank for it.

"It's just strange, I guess. Why a snake, of all things?" Angela muttered as she watched her son hold Harry's pet and grin widely.

"Harry being able to speak to snakes is rare," Petunia explained, "not something every wizard can do. As for why they are so close, Harry says that Najash can almost literally _smell_ or _taste _sickness. He's hoping that in the future he can learn to differentiate illnesses. You can imagine how helpful that could be as a healer or doctor."

"Does Hermione know about it?" Tina asked.

"Hermione lets Najash play in her hair, he likes it because it's so thick. She even tried to learn parseltongue but it didn't work." She answered with a slight frown. Tina constantly compared herself with the other girl, and Petunia was sure that her goal was to be a better witch than Hermione, somehow. More and more it was seeming like she wanted to just do everything Hermione did _better_ than her. The way Remus praised how quickly she picked things up, she might actually do it.

True to form, the moment she knew that Hermione didn't have a problem with snakes, Tina had rejoined the boys. She was also trying to hiss like Harry was.

Inside, Vernon was explaining to a simmering Timothy Polkiss about how the snake had saved Petunia's life. As well as how it had protected her from another snake that intruded in the garden summer before last. Vernon knew that keeping anything from his neighbor would just cause problems, so he went ahead and explained that Harry, and _very few others_, could speak to snakes in a hissing language. He headed off another explosion from Timothy by explaining that the snake used that language to tell Harry how to cure Petunia when she was sick.

By the time they had had a drink to calm down, and Vernon had repeated multiple times how Harry planned to work with his snake to make medicine, Timothy was ready to relent, then he asked the question that finally made Vernon turn colours.

"What's the thing's name then? So I can apologize properly to Harry, and Petunia." He asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend's nervous chuckles.

"Why did the boy have to be so bloody cheeky?" Vernon muttered to himself, "He named the snake 'Najash,' despite my saying it should have a proper, English, name."

"Najash?" Timothy frowned, he liked to study older orthodoxy and recognized what that name was based on, "_The Serpent of Eden_? Are you having me on?"

"Harry thought it was funny," Vernon hastily explained, "we initially kept magic from him when he was younger because we thought it would protect him. Then the snake comes along, talking up a storm in Petunia's garden, and gives him 'forbidden knowledge.' It's just a joke, I assure you that I knew about magic before that. It is not something the snake did, and there is no devil worship in my house. I wouldn't have it."

It took another ten minutes, followed by a private conversation between Timothy, Petunia, and Harry, before the man was truly calmed down again. Despite being at least convinced that the snake wasn't dangerous in any way, he still decided not to join the rest of his family in going with the Dursleys for their last minute shopping. Even knowing the snake would obviously be left at home, he needed time to process.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

In a shop situated on an out of the way end of Diagon Alley, Remus Lupin swept his eyes over the myriad different things for sale as he made his way to the proprietor, who obviously recognized him since he was actually _holding _a copy of the _Prophet_.

"Can I help you?" The shopkeeper asked suspiciously.

Remus pulled a sheet of parchment from his cloak and placed it on the counter between them, it was a list of things he was looking to buy.

"I'm Christmas shopping for a certain famous young wizard." He said, trying to affect a smile rather than a grimace at the other's nervous demeanor.

The man glanced over the list, finding a who's who of simple plants for beginner herbalists and potioneers, _someone was starting a new greenhouse_, "You can find everything on your list in my store or the attached nursery." He said, glancing at the man he knew to be a werewolf, "Is there anything to this?" He asked, holding up the _Prophet_.

"Honestly," Remus returned, "if there was do you think I'd be here Christmas shopping? Harry and his aunt both like to brew potions and garden. This is supposed to be her gift to him."

The shopkeeper nodded at that, "It's not in the paper, but I know for a fact that Andromeda Black, as they're calling her, became a healer. Her husband too, Ted Tonks. I sometimes supply things to St. Mungos, you see. And those healers like to meet us growers and 'pothecaries. I've never met a healer who was dark enough to endanger a child."

"I'm glad that the public isn't as united against us as Skeeter suggests." Was the werewolf's reply, "If you can gather what Harry's aunt wants, and have it delivered through Gringotts, I'll see about coming back here when we upgrade the greenhouses next year."

"There's quite a bit of first aid on this." The shopkeeper commented as he ran down the list again.

Remus mused over whether it was okay to say this, but decided with what the _Prophet _was insinuating he would need an answer of some kind, "Harry wants to be a healer, that was one of the reasons that he and his aunt had me reach out to Andromeda in the first place."

The other man nodded, "The world can always use more healers. Give me some time to get this list together for you. We can take care of payment once I know I've got everything the lady wants."

A few hours later, that same shopkeeper found himself in a room with several mean looking goblins after he went to Gringotts to try and schedule the delivery.

"Human," the largest of the goblins, an Accounts Manager most likely, said, "the Potter steward gave us a list of things that were ordered from your store and asked us to screen for anything dangerous or untoward that might have been added. Just as a precaution." He grinned ferally, revealing several pointed teeth.

The poor herbalist nodded, a terrified look on his face as he fought not to glance at any of the armed guards in the room, and the Accounts Manager continued, "Now explain why there totals approximately two hundred Galleons worth of saplings, supplies, and fertilizer that are above and beyond the requested and paid for amount. Gringotts does not like when wizards try to scam our clients. This invoice should be almost seventy percent higher, were you planning to sue for the difference after the fact?"

"Of course not," the man said nervously, "I would never try to scam the Boy-Who-Lived! The extra stock is meant to be a gift I… I mean my mother was muggleborn, she died back during the first war… I just wanted to do a little something to repay Mister Potter for what he did."

If goblins smiled for the same reasons humans did, then Accounts Manager Axegut would be smiling at this moment. All goblins held respect for those who truly honored their debts. Instead, he grunted, "Very well. Security around Heir Potter's home and family life is, as you can tell, very tight. But I will ensure that the Potter steward hears of this so that Heir Potter can offer the appropriate thanks."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The evening of Monday, December twenty-third, saw two different people enter the Ministry of Magic no less than five minutes apart. Though neither knew that the other was there at the time, nor that they were both there for the same reason, Andromeda Tonks and Albus Dumbledore both entered the Ministry to find answers to the same question.

In the DMLE meeting room, called the "Ready Room" by the aurors as anyone stationed there has to be prepared to answer a call at any moment, Andromeda waited for Amelia Bones' secretary to return and take her to her boss's office.

"Madame Bones will see you now." The woman said when she returned, it was clear from her short tone that _she _had already made her mind up about what had come out last night.

Andromeda had to dig deep to not let the sidelong glances from the secretary, and other aurors, affect her, but in the end she was fine doing so. Even if she had run away, she had been raised in the House of Black, she knew how to pretend others were beneath her notice.

"Thank you for seeing me Madame Bones." She said as she was let into the office of the Head of the DMLE.

"I must say, I'm rather shocked to see you here so soon after what happened last night." Amelia Bones said from behind her desk, her monocle trained on Andromeda, "I'm sorry, but if you're here to complain about the pictures or something, it's all above board. The platform is a public place."

"It's not that, we are taking care of that in other ways." Andromeda replied, "May I sit for a moment?"

"Of course." She answered, gesturing to the chair in front of her, "How can I help you? Is this personal, or about House Potter?"

"A little bit of both." Andromeda answered as she sat, "Please don't take this the wrong way, but is this room secure?"

Amelia frowned, but cast a series of spells to confirm that there was no one else in the room and that the privacy charms were in working order.

"Last night," Andromeda began, "Harry Potter opened his parents' wills."

"I thought they were sealed by the Wizengamot?"

"James and Lily had copies in their vault at Gringotts. He took out copies of _those _yesterday and opened them at home." She pinched her nose for a moment to gather her wits before the next revelation, "The main reason they were opened was apparently to ensure that Dumbledore hadn't hidden anything from Harry. But what he and his family found was that Sirius Black is apparently Harry's godfather by Oath."

Amelia's monocle fell off her face as her eyes widened.

"Now they need to know if the wills can even be trusted," Andromeda continued, "since it's clear that there are inaccuracies in them. I was hoping you could pull up transcripts of Sirius' trial and see if it came up there. If it didn't we will have to assume that the wills found in the vault were just wishful thinking on the part of the Potters and see about pushing Dumbledore to unseal the ones that were officially filed here at the Ministry."

"You said that Dumbledore might be keeping things from Harry Potter?"

"I'm relatively new to the story, and this absolutely cannot leave this room." She glared at the auburn haired woman until she nodded before continuing, "Dumbledore left Harry to be raised by his aunt, who he incorrectly believed to have no ties to our world. He went so far as to magically prevent Petunia or Harry from being able to return to the magical world before he intended. It was only an accidental encounter with a muggleborn girl that let the two of them find Diagon Alley again."

"Are you serious?" Amelia leaned forwards to pay better attention.

"Yes," Andromeda replied, "it was heavy handed, but it was meant as a means of protecting Harry from leftover Death Eaters following the war. It was actually done _before_ what happened to the Longbottoms, so I would say it probably saved Harry's life at one point or another. Regardless of that though, Harry and his family are angry at Dumbledore for never coming to check on Harry, not about him being placed where he was. They are still working things out." That should be enough of an explanation for her without having to bring up the mismanagement of the House.

"I understand." Amelia sighed, "I'll pull the record for the trial and send you a copy of the transcript by owl in the morning. Will that be acceptable?"

"That would be perfect," Andromeda replied, "but could I trouble you to also send a copy to Harry's aunt? She can be reached through Gringotts, address it to 'Ms. Acacia.'" At Amelia's confused expression, she elaborated, "That's the alias that Harry's aunt used during the war. She still uses it to keep a buffer around Harry and herself, something else that shouldn't leave this room."

"That will not be a problem, is there anything else I should know?" Amelia felt a headache coming on from all this.

"No, I believe that's everything relevant for the moment."

In that case," Amelia asked, the work stress leaving her face as she switched gears to more pleasant topics, "could you tell me a little about Harry Potter and his family? Nothing sensitive! Susan has written about he and his cousin a few times this term, particularly his cousin. Is it really true that they can both use wandless magic?"

Andromeda grinned and began telling Amelia not only about Harry's and Dudley's abilities, but also the fact that her daughter, an _auror candidate_ mind you, had practiced enough with the same technique to begin simple wandless levitation as well. She thought about mentioning the troll on Halloween, coverage of that event had been suspiciously lacking from the _Daily Prophet_, or the broomstick incident, but decided that they might actually need Dumbledore's help in the future if the issues with Diggory didn't go away.

Meanwhile, in the Ministry records room, Albus Dumbledore stared dumbfounded at the empty file in his hands. The transcripts of trials, as well as important office documentation or parchementwork from other kinds from official Wizengamot meetings that take place within the Ministry building are all automatically recorded by a magic device in the Department of Mysteries that is sealed from being tampered with. Basically everything except the actual taking of the minutes was handled by this system. The filing and organization of such documents is also automated by magic; and in the event of a file's destruction, the primary device will replace the missing information from "memory."

The idea that the file could have been removed and never replaced was ludicrous and pointless; as Chief Warlock he had the magical authority to demand a new copy be made for him, and he attempted to do so to no avail. But the only other explanation for this was heart chilling, and to bring it up without more proof than merely the lack of proof would be dangerous. Especially if he was wrong. But still, how else could there be no transcript for a trial... unless there was no trial?

An hour after Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore had left the Ministry records room, DMLE Head Amelia Bones entered. Upon finding Black's file to be devoid of a trial transcript, she checked the records to see who might be attempting to falsify or conceal the information. In ten years only one other person had ever checked that file, and it had happened that very evening.

Though she knew it was all part of the job, Amelia _hated _when cases presented themselves at Christmas.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The rat known as Scabbers relaxed into his carrier, he had overheard the loud Weasley matron talking about going to Romania for Christmas break when they first arrived, but was originally confused as to why it seemed young Ronald was not going to be joining the family. He had worried that perhaps the boy was visiting Potter, there was talk in the dungeons that Ronald had befriended the Boy-Who-Lived well and proper.

Sadly, Scabbers never felt safe enough to venture out of the Slytherin dorms on his own to confirm what he heard, and Ronald didn't take him out because of Potter's snake. Because of this, he had to rely on gossip to know what was happening. He couldn't afford to remain out of the loop for much longer, seeing Remus at Hogwarts had almost gave him a heart attack.

Thankfully for the rat, when Ronald returned from dinner that night he was sad and depressed muttering, "I don't wanna go." _Clearly_, Scabbers thought, _their issues with the boy being in Slytherin aren't fixed if they're sending him to Muriel's while they all go on vacation._ He had no idea that Ron was depressed because his mum was arguing that he _should_ go to Romania after what was revealed in the _Prophet_ that morning. An issue of the paper that the rat known as Scabbers never got to see.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

That evening the Polkiss family, including a mollified Timothy, dined with the Dursleys. Now that Remus was there to supervise, Tina got to show off her magic to Harry and Dudley, as well as her immensely impressed father. She set the entire table, from silverware to serving platters one piece at a time, with levitation in under two minutes.

"That was like a scene out of _Fantasia_." Timothy said as he watched the last of the large platters settle onto the dining room table, "Amazing Tina. That was amazing… I'm sorry I've never come and watched your lessons before."

"That was way better than I can do." Harry admitted sheepishly.

"Me too." Dudley added, "I can lift big stuff now, but it tends to be wobbly. I'd have spilled everything."

Tina preened, and Petunia had to stifle a groan as the little girl asked the dreaded question, "What about Hermione? Am I better at it than her?"

"Probably." Dudley answered at the same time Harry overrode him with a, "Almost." that drew a confused look from his cousin.

"We don't practice much since we take longer on our homework and stuff. She practices up in the Gryffindor common room when she's alone." Harry explained, "She can levitate a book and read it, turn the pages with magic and everything. I saw her take notes without dropping the book once too. I don't think she is as fast as you though, Tina, so you have that."

Tina huffed, it still took all her concentration to levitate things and she was breathless and tired after she was done with the table just now, even if she _was _good at it and didn't spill anything. There was no way she could _read_ while levitating, was there? Taking _notes_ while keeping the magic active?

"I bet I can do that soon too." She finally said.

Petunia's expression darkened as she watched the exchange, Tina's need to be better than Hermione really was growing into a strange obsession. She would need to make sure Remus was aware of it, she didn't want Tina to hurt herself by pushing too hard. She decided that, at the very least, a change of subject was in order.

"Thank you again, Angela, for letting us use your cafe tomorrow." She smiled to her friend, "Remus will be there in the morning to make sure it can't be found by them again after we are finished."

"Not a problem, Petunia. I'm happy to help, and the girls were glad to have Christmas Eve off." Angela was actually rather excited at the prospect of getting to meet a famous journalist. Even if they were from the magical world.


	23. Chapter 22: The Interview

Christmas Break Part III: The Interview

Rita Skeeter gave herself another once over in the mirror before calling out to her cameraman to hurry up with securing his equipment for portkey travel. She had almost dismissed the letter she'd received at the office last night out-of-hand. After all, there was no way that a family as famously quiet as the Potter's had been for the last decade would respond so quickly! It was only when the visiting daughter of one of the _Daily Prophet_'s editors, Lavender Brown if Rita remembered correctly, exclaimed that the owl who had delivered it was the personal owl of Harry Potter and his cousin that she even bothered to break the seal. She was so glad she did, for inside she found the greatest Christmas gift she could have possibly asked for, an invitation to an interview with the Potter Family at large.

Despite the assurances of her colleague, and just in case this was just retaliation over the article she'd written the day before, Rita had procured an emergency portkey from her boss and hidden it in a secret pocket of her robes. One couldn't be too careful when dealing with a family that carries a reputation like the Blacks.

At exactly ten o'clock, Rita and her cameraman, Bozo, gripped the loop of rope that had been provided by Gringotts once they had accepted the invitation and felt the familiar tug of magic as they spun away to wherever Harry Potter and his family had arranged to meet with them. The first thing that she realized upon landing was that they had been taken somewhere muggle. There were several of those bright, flameless candles (_light-bulbs,_ she reminded herself) hanging from the ceiling. Which appeared even brighter due to the fact that all the windows seemed to have been blacked out with tarp.

"Welcome Miss Skeeter, welcome." A kind looking brunette woman said from the other side of the room. She gave a worried glance at Bozo, who held up his camera to identify himself.

"Um," Rita's eyes walked up and down the woman, quickly assuming her to be a muggle based on her dress and demeanor, "I believe there might be a mistake here… I was supposed to be meeting a Potter family today."

"Yes, Miss Skeeter, that's correct." A male voice spoke as Remus Lupin hastily walked from around a partition, "I'm sorry I wasn't here to greet you, I was making a last minute check on the security wards for the interview and lost a bit of time."

"Harry and the others are in the front of the cafe," the muggle woman explained, "Remus thought it would be better for your Secrecy if the portkey brought you here to the back."

"And where exactly _is _'here?'"

"No ma'am," the werewolf interjected, "that question, as well as personal questions that might lead to this address, are off limits. We don't need throngs of wizards coming to a muggle cafe because they think they can find Harry Potter that way. The same will be enforced about Harry's home." Rita looked unconvinced until the man locked her with his amber eyes and continued, "You wouldn't want to be accused of breaking the Statute of Secrecy by instigating such a scenario, would you?"

Rita paled slightly at that prospect. As soon as she'd realized that they were in a muggle cafe under an anti-apparition ward she had resolved to try and get a peek at a street sign for her article, or to return later. But now, maybe not. The tarps covering the windows were clearly a precaution against exactly that, and painting the family as overly secretive might work for her story anyways.

"No, you're correct." Rita answered hastily, "I can get ahead of myself sometimes when a story is involved. But I do have to ask, why are we doing this in a _muggle _cafe? Just to make sure it's actually acceptable for us to be here."

"Because Angela here," Remus indicated the muggle woman, "the owner of the cafe, has a witch for a daughter, so we don't have to worry about Secrecy as long as we keep the windows blocked like we have. Harry didn't want to do this somewhere like the Leaky Cauldron because it would have likely drawn a crowd."

"I suppose I understand," Rita nodded, "may we move on then? If we finish early enough I might be able to publish this as a special Christmas edition."

Remus fought to keep his smirk off his face, that was exactly what they wanted.

When Rita and Bozo followed the muggle and the werewolf around the partition to the front of the cafe they were met with the scene of two boys playing a muggle card game with another muggle that Rita recognized as Harry Potter's aunt. After a nudge from her, Bozo pulled up his camera and got a shot of the family relaxing and playing.

"Miss Evans? Petunia, is it?" Rita asked in a sickly sweet voice as she quickened her pace to greet the woman after the picture was taken, "I'm so glad you've given us this opportunity. I am Rita Skeeter, of the _Daily Prophet_."

"Dursley." Petunia corrected, causing Rita to pause for a moment, "I am married, my name is Petunia _Dursley_. This is my son, Dudley. I'm sure I don't need to introduce Harry to you, do I?"

"Of course not," Rita returned smoothly, "I am quite sure that any witch or wizard in Britain would recognize the Boy-Who-Lived on sight." She noted that Harry winced at the use of his title, _interesting_.

"Please refer to my nephew by his _name_, Miss Skeeter." Petunia insisted as the boys put the cards away, "It is not proper to saddle a child with such as that."

"Ma'am, you must understand. Harry Potter is-"

"We know that people think I did something special." Harry interrupted, earning a reproachful glance from his aunt, "But I was just a baby, I don't want to be treated different for it. I just want to be 'Harry.'"

Rita smiled anew, "Alright 'just Harry,' why don't we begin the interview?"

He didn't get to answer as the front door opened slightly, allowing a regal and well dressed (for a muggle) Andromeda Tonks to enter the cafe with a much more flamboyantly (though still muggle) dressed Albus Dumbledore behind her. Petunia fought back a chuckle as she watched Skeeter's reaction to the new arrivals, she appeared to have to consciously remind herself not to drool.

"You haven't started without us, I hope?" Dumbledore asked as he closed the door behind him and waved his wand at it.

"Oh no, we were just getting some introductions out of the way," Petunia answered, "I was about to inform Miss Skeeter that you were coming."

"Where is Vernon?" Andromeda asked as she took a seat at the large table.

"He will be back in a moment," Petunia answered, slightly embarrassed for him, "the weight management drops he's taking have… you know."

The kids couldn't help but giggle at that, and the group was laughing together as Vernon Dursley emerged from the bathroom. He stopped as he approached and gave a questioning look at the laughing crowd, which only set them off further.

"No respect I tell you." He muttered good naturedly under his breath as he joined his wife and sat across from Rita Skeeter. Once he took the time to look her over he lamented that he hadn't brought sunglasses with him. Her attire looked like some sort of fusion of witches' robes and a non magical dress, but it was a bright green that practically gave off its own illumination. At least the headmaster had the decency to not wear clothes that glowed in the dark!

Rita glanced at Albus Dumbledore, the only one who had elected to remain standing besides her cameraman, not that Bozo was being paid to sit around, "Well, if this is everyone, let me get out my quill set up and we can get started."

She reached into her purse and removed a roll of parchment and an electric-green quill that clashed with her dress.

"If you wish to use _that_, Miss Skeeter, you may." Andromeda said with an air of disdain as she reached into her own bag, pulling out a jet black quill and her own parchment, "But I will be recording this meeting with a Dicto-Quill. If anything… overly imaginative, I suppose I should say… appears in your article, then we will be contacting your boss."

"Yes well…" Rita huffed as she watched the other woman set up the Dicto-Quill, "in that case it would be more efficient if I simply received a copy of that. There's no reason for us to have to listen to _two_ quills scratching away."

After receiving an imperious nod from the Potter Regent, Rita put her Quick Quotes Quill away and began her interview in earnest. She began by repeating the introductions that had taken place before Andromeda and Dumbledore arrived, and made a point to correct Petunia's name to her married one this time. But she intentionally called Harry by his media given moniker again, eliciting a second round of reprimand from his aunt and uncle. Rita was okay with them being a little defensive since it would make it easier to speculate about them later.

Before diving into the controversial issues that were most _definitely _the reason she had been invited to this interview, Rita elected to ask Harry and his family, though mostly he and his aunt, about his life before Hogwarts. She practically salivated over the truth that the _Heir Potter_ hadn't known about magic until he was eight when, according to him, he had a bout of accidental magic that simply couldn't be explained away by his guardians. The reporter was already contemplating how she could find a record of said accidental magic. If it was so large that an experienced family couldn't come up with a story, then it could be an interesting tale.

Rita was also already excited for the potential articles she could sell to _Witch Weekly_ and _Teen Witch Weekly_ concerning Harry Potter's specific desire to follow his mother's path. To say nothing of how sweet a "momma's boy" image could be, Harry Potter in a healers uniform would be every teen witch's fantasy by the New Year!

When Petunia explained that Remus Lupin had been a close friend of Harry's father, so close in fact that she actually knew of him despite never personally meeting the man before that year, Rita attempted to pull out of the family whether they'd known the were hiring a werewolf at the time or if that had been a deception by the Blacks.

"It was Remus that introduced me to Andromeda and her family." Petunia answered evenly. Her husband had warned her that Rita Skeeter tended to ask maliciously worded questions in her interviews to get more 'exciting' reactions, "I contacted him to serve as Steward of Harry's accounts after we were reintroduced to the magical world last Christmas. At that time, Dumbledore had realized that he didn't have the time to keep doing so, due to his other obligations, and was thankful for the reprieve." She glanced over at Dumbledore, who nodded imperceptibly in thanks.

"So you _didn't_ know that he was a werewolf?"

"Of course I did." Petunia answered, thankful that Dumbledore was willing to take this blow for them, "He's been a werewolf the entire time either James, or Lily, have known him."

"But that's not possible, he went to… I mean-" Rita began, trying to form coherent thoughts in response to that even as words began to tumble out of her mouth uncontrollably.

"That is why I am here today, Miss Skeeter. To corroborate and explain." Albus Dumbledore spoke over the woman, using a small bit of wandless magic to silence her for just a moment before releasing it. "It has been a closely guarded secret since his time in school, but Remus Lupin was bitten by Fenrir Greyback when he was only five years old."

That had exactly the expected reaction on Rita, who covered her mouth as she looked at Remus with sadness and a measure of newfound pity that he did his best not to get offended by.

"I felt that such a tragedy should not ruin his chance to have an education and a better life." Albus continued, "So I arranged a place off Hogwarts grounds, where young Mister Lupin would be escorted each full moon. This system worked for all seven years of his time at Hogwarts, and the only people to learn the secret were Remus' dorm mates, of whom James Potter was obviously one, Lily Evans, and Severus Snape who were both just too clever to not figure it out. Mister Lupin even made prefect in his fifth year, he worked hard in school and never let the periodic weakness brought on by his affliction stop him from excelling."

In that moment Rita wasn't seeing Remus Lupin the werewolf, she was seeing Remus Lupin the child victim. Or at least that was who he would be by the time she was writing a piece or three on his struggles to survive to adulthood and ultimately become the Potter Steward. It was really easy to hate and fear werewolves, but no rational adult could hate a _child_ like that.

"When he pieced it together, I thought James was going to turn me in. Or at the very least not speak to me again." Remus added, "But instead he laughed it off and said he would never abandon a friend over just some 'furry little problem.'" Remus looked at Harry for a minute before adding one final comment, "I think that was the moment I knew that he and Lily were meant to be together, even if they hadn't figured it out themselves yet. That was exactly what Lily had called my condition when she found out about it too."

"So both of the Potters were aware of your lycanthropy and accepted you into their lives anyways?" Rita didn't need to ask whether he was really a friend to the Potters, anyone who had done a piece on them knew that Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew had been inseparable up until Black's betrayal.

"Yes, that's correct. James and Lily stayed my closest friends until their deaths." Lupin nodded, his eyes misty as he fought to keep from thinking too much about better times, "In fact, Lily told me she was going to try and find a cure for lycanthropy someday. She never got the chance, but she _did_ work with Horace Slughorn to improve the Wolfsbane potion."

"That's something I definitely want to do." Harry included, smiling at Remus as he did, "I want to make the cure my mum didn't get to, to help my dad's friend. My Uncle Moony shouldn't have to hurt and ache like he was on Sunday when that picture was taken."

"Uncle Moony?" Rita pressed, "A play on his condition?"

"'Moony' was a nickname that James and the others called me in school once they found out, it stuck to me." Remus explained.

Shortly after they moved off the topic of Remus Lupin being a werewolf in school, Dumbledore took his leave, citing a last minute meeting with Madame Bones, and called his phoenix to pick him up and move him directly through the anti-apparition wards. Rita didn't miss the not-at-all subtle reminder of just who was standing behind the people she was interviewing, but was avidly curious about the old man's meeting with the Head of the DMLE.

As the interview moved on, the story that Rita was originally planning to write changed drastically. Knowing beyond any doubt that Remus Lupin was a werewolf and that Andromeda was the older sister of Bellatrix Lestrange, she had been sure that the final draft of her story would include a lot of dramatic pleas for help in saving a young, impressionable Harry Potter from encroaching Darkness. The whole Wizengamot was still reeling from the shock of Amos Diggory losing the Potter proxy after ten years with literally no warning or explanation, and that would have added fuel to the fire. But now it began to become clear that anyone who spent twenty minutes in a room with this family could see that they were close, and attacks on that family _would _be rebuffed. It was apparent that Andromeda was still sort of an odd-woman-out, but she was also the newest addition, according to their story, so that was understandable. Couple all of that with Petunia's assertion that Dumbledore kept Harry Potter and his guardians out of the loop with regards to the magical world "for their protection" and the sudden, sweeping changes made sense.

A new narrative began to congeal in her head as she spoke further with Andromeda and Remus, and surprisingly Vernon and Petunia as well. She had expected the muggles to be mostly listeners once they were done speaking about Harry Potter's young life, but they had quotable statements throughout that she wasn't going to pass up. A vindictive Wizengamot member hungry to reclaim power he thought was somehow his by right, all while blinded by hatred for victims of a disease. Andromeda _Tonks_, who had been specifically brought up because she was a _healer_, like Harry Potter said he wanted to be (though it wouldn't do to discount that his father was an auror in the finished article), in addition to distant family. Rita was loathe to mention in text that the Boy-Who-Lived was only a few generations removed from the Blacks, but it was necessary to explain how she had become Regent and not merely proxy.

No, calling attention to the Blacks wasn't ideal. But getting the chance to snipe at Dumbledore for failing to properly protect the political interests of the Boy-Who-Lived was worth it.

One other thing that she couldn't help but take note of, and the Dicto Quill wouldn't let her conceal, was that Harry was _completely _at ease around all of the people here. He didn't let them dictate his opinions either, whenever she asked a question of the boy he answered clearly and concisely, but without any obvious signs of coaching. The amount of controversy and political intrigue this was going to generate easily made up for the loss of face the _Prophet _would have to deal with when they printed this effective retraction of Monday's article.

The group spoke for almost an hour and a half in total, and the parchment that Andromeda's Dicto-Quill was writing on had to be replaced multiple times. As Rita became more and more aware that her subjects were angling to leave, she decided to ask her final question.

"Before we finish, there is much ado about Harry Potter's ability with wandless magic." The reporter began, "Do you think we could get a few shots of you showing that to us?"

"Wouldn't we get in trouble?" Harry asked.

"Actually, I anticipated that she would ask that." Andromeda answered, "I asked Dumbledore to authorize permission for this morning. No underage magic will be reported from this location until noon." Technically that didn't matter, as wandless magic wasn't trackable by the Ministry, but there was no point in making it seem like Harry Potter was ignoring the rules.

Petunia watched Harry without stepping in, curious how he would handle this, she wasn't disappointed when he shrugged and turned to Dudley.

"Help me out?" Harry asked, nodding his head at the table.

"Sure." Dudley answered, getting up and standing beside Harry while Bozo got ready with his camera. They closed their eyes for a moment while they held hands, before raising their unencumbered hands and lifting not just the table, but also all the occupied chairs around it with a simultaneous incantation of "Wingardium Leviosa."

Bozo the cameraman almost missed the shot entirely, so awed was he by what he was witnessing. Remus and Petunia were giggling like children as they hovered five feet above the ground. Rita and Vernon were united in their unease at flying under another's power, both were warily glancing over the edge of their chairs at the floor. Andromeda smiled as well, but fought back the giggling in favor of praising the boys for their strength and control.

"That was like nothing I've ever seen." Rita stated as her chair casually returned to a resting position on the floor. There was some tea and pastries that had spilled on the table, enough to be considered a mess, but the boys were too impressed with themselves that they had kept all the chairs level enough that no one fell out to notice.

There was nothing left for Rita to ask that could have trumped that most impressive display of magic. Most adults could only cast one or two simple spells of low power wandlessly, and to see that Harry Potter had cast the spell in concert with his cousin was just another tantalizing story waiting to be explored as well, so Rita bid the family a Happy Christmas, gathered her copy of the interview transcript and prepared to activate the return feature of their portkey. As she landed back in her office she glanced down at the loop of rope, but was disappointed to find it had burned to ash moments after arriving. With that gone, she had no way of finding Angela's cafe again. At least, not unless one of Bozo's pictures happened to have captured the place's name. Something she doubted would happen since anywhere she would have expected it to be visible had been covered up when she glanced around herself.

"Well?" Her chief editor was sitting in the corner of the room, where he had clearly been waiting for quite a while, "How did it go?"

Rita grinned and held up the Dicto-Quill transcripts, "I have a lot of work to do if I'm going to get this parsed down into a workable story by tomorrow's release. I'll need to think of a title, too, something suitably dramatic and eye-catching for the occasion."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

It was a lucky thing that the Dursleys had anticipated the interview running longer than an hour, so they had already packed what they needed for their Christmas get-together with their friends from non magical school. Their excitement at seeing their old friends quickly morphed to nervousness, however, as they were bombarded with questions about their "special boarding school" and realized they didn't know how to answer half of them. The slightly late arrival of Hermione with her parents at the youth center where the get-together was happening saved them, as Hermione had apparently already spent some time figuring out code words for magical things that would seem more mundane. Potions became chemistry, charms became physics, and so on.

The three magical children had a great time getting to play a proper game of football again with their friends, and the little party ended up lasting slightly longer than originally planned. During that time, Harry managed to tell Hermione a little about the letter his parents had sent him, and before the group split up for Christmas Eve with their families she promised that she would see if she had any books on divination that could help with the prophecy business. After all, her parents hadn't restricted her from _reading_ about magic, just _talking _about it.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

After a thirty minute shouting match that ended with Amelia Bones flooing out of his office to begin an undercover investigation of her predecessor as Head of the DMLE, Albus Dumbledore was holding his head and wondering if a dreamless sleep potion at noon was truly a bad idea.

The woman had entered his office on the offensive, accusing him of covering up something about the Potter Incident of '81. Apparently she'd found out about the missing trial transcript and assumed he had hid it. It took far longer than Albus would have liked to convince the irate woman that he was looking for the same information she was. Unlike him, however, she immediately decided to investigate the man who had been in charge at the time. For some reason she believed there must be some kind of conspiracy for this kind of oversight to happen, Albus was confident that there was simply a glitch in the system that he would ultimately track down.

_She's probably just taking it personally because he was one of her aurors at the time_, Albus mused to himself as he fought to suppress his headache. When the incident occured Amelia had recently been promoted to Head Auror under then DMLE Head Barty Crouch. _I suppose it makes sense to want to know _"why" _though_. Not for the first time, he wondered that himself.

"Why did I never look into this before?" Dumbledore moaned aloud to his empty room.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Hermione was exhausted when she finally went to bed on Christmas Eve. Normally she would have found a book and quietly hidden herself in a corner, or perhaps her room, while all of her family was visiting and celebrating and making noise for the holidays. This year, though, Hermione had tried to get to know her cousins a little better. She only really saw most of them at Christmas anyways, and being around Harry as he slowly learned that he wasn't alone except for his aunt, uncle, and cousin had made her appreciate family just a little bit more.

Unfortunately, one of her _own _cousins had decided that Hermione's new outgoing personality was the result of a boy. Cousin Melody had taken multiple opportunities to sneak into Hermione's room to try and find proof of her "secret boyfriend," and pretty soon Hermione was so frustrated with her that she could scream.

Their argument came to a head towards the end of the night. Hermione had been with her father, seeing off some of the last guests when she heard a _thud_ from above them. Running upstairs to make sure no one was hurt, she found Melody trying to pry open her school trunk with a claw hammer that she'd likely taken from the garage.

"Melody!" Hermione shouted, startling the girl into falling over backwards and hitting her head, "How dare you? Get away from my things!"

The girl ran out of the room, holding her head, as Hermione checked that the lock had held against her cousins attempts at intrusion. Wizarding trunks like this one didn't have very strong or sophisticated physical security because it was usually assumed that the owner would put their own wards on it. Perhaps she could figure out how to do a sticking charm wandlessly? She'd already been warned by her parents that she couldn't use her wand except when she was at school until after fifth year.

As she came downstairs, she heard Melody crying to her parents about how Hermione was "selfish and mean, and she pushed me down," and Hermione's parents gave her a disappointed look as they noticed her at the foot of the stairs. _They think I'm just mad at them!_ She realized as she began to tear up. Emma, however, noticed the rapid change in her daughter's demeanor, and wiggled her hand a little like a stage magician on the telly.

_Was she snooping around something magic?_ She seemed to ask her daughter with her eyes, garnering a tearful nod from the bushy haired witch.

"We will speak to Hermione about this." Emma spoke over her husband's response to his sister after giving her daughter a candid wink, "She had company coming over this weekend, now she won't."

Aunt Rachel, Melody's mother, watched Hermione's tearful reaction before agreeing, "I can't believe you let her act this way, on _Christmas _no less."

As Aunt Rachel and her family left the Granger home, Hermione caught Melody sticking her tongue out at her.

"What was that young lady?" Daniel began laying into Hermione as soon as the last uncle had left to go home for the night, "I know you don't like people going through your room, but you should know that you can't push down your cousin just for wanting to see."

"She was in my closet dad!" Hermione cried back as her mother wrapped her in her arms, "She was trying to get in my school trunk! All I did was yell at her!"

"Dan," Emma warned, "I told you at the beginning of the night that this was going to be a problem, the very first time Melody went into Hermione's room this evening I _told_ you that she would go snooping where she shouldn't."

"She had a hammer and everything," Hermione muttered, "and then she lied about it."

Daniel Granger was at a loss for words. He knew that his family sometimes overstepped their bounds when they came over. He hadn't come from money, and as a dentist he was the most successful of his family, so they tended to take advantage on the rare occasions that any of them came by. He knew that, and was inclined to accept it, but it was clear that he was going to need to put his foot down a little. He'd never had something like magic that he needed to keep from his family before.

Hermione woke up the next morning refreshed and excited. Her father had apologized for not trusting her last night before she went to bed, and her mother had promised a special surprise for Christmas, so how could she not be? Sitting up to take a look at her alarm clock, she was slightly disappointed to see it was before seven. Her parents probably weren't awake yet. At first she tried laying in bed and going back to sleep, but by seven-thirty she was going spare with curiosity over what gifts she'd received.

Deciding that sleep was for the weak, Hermione rose and quickly prepared to wake her parents and go downstairs. As she was getting out a robe to put over her pyjamas, it was December after all, she heard her parents stirring as well and slowed down to descend at the same time as them.

Christmas Morning was much less stressful than the night before, and the Granger family enjoyed a large breakfast as they opened gifts and discussed their plans for next week when the Patils were over. The closer it got to time for the two magically-raised girls to arrive, the more Emma had begun to passively worry that something would go wrong or that one or both of the girls would accidentally reveal magic due to not understanding the non magical world.

Hermione was quite happy about the things she had received from her parents. There were over a dozen large books that she was especially glad for, among other, less academic, things as well. Most of the books were magical in nature, her mum had gotten her _two different_ tomes on magical first aid that she was particularly excited to tear into. For their part, her parents had enjoyed the things she had picked for them. Her mother held up a snow globe with a magically animated Hogwarts castle within, and her father had received a book with simple household potions that didn't require magic to brew. When he had first unwrapped the gift he smirked at her, Emma was a terrible cook so Daniel tended to take care of everything in the kitchen.

While they had been opening things, the mail owl arrived to deliver the _Daily Prophet_ with the interview Harry's family had done with Rita Skeeter. After reading the article, Hermione immediately asked to call Harry and ask about it, only to be reminded that she couldn't until Friday.

The one thing that Hermione had not been able to figure out so far was what the "surprise" her parents had talked about was going to be. That question was answered around noon when she prepared to get dressed to go visit Grandma and Grandpa Puckle, who were the only other members of her mother's family left. Grandpa Puckle wasn't feeling well, having just gotten over a cold, so instead of going today, they were waiting until tomorrow when he would feel better. When Hermione inquired what they would do instead, they always visited her mother's family for an early dinner on Christmas day, she almost screamed in excitement at her mother's response.

"I'm sorry again for not trusting you last night, sweetheart." Dan said as his daughter launched herself at first her mother, then him, after seeing the loop of rope that served as a portkey to Potter Isle.

"It's okay daddy." Hermione replied with her face still crushed against his chest.

"I guess you know what this is." Emma said as she put the rope on the table. Petunia knew that Hermione was grounded, but she had mailed them a portkey anyway, 'in case of good behaviour' she'd said in the accompanying note, "But how?"

"I can feel it, the magic I mean." Hermione answered happily, "I read about portkeys, and I can't think of anything else that could be. I didn't _know_ it went to Harry's island until you said so, obviously, but I could guess."

"Well, Petunia gave me this just in case we decided to ignore your restrictions. Go get dressed for slightly warmer weather, and grab anything you want to take with you for the day." Emma instructed as Hermione got her excitement back under control, "We're having Christmas Dinner with the Dursleys and the Smiths this evening."


	24. Chapter 23: The Family Tapestry

**AN: I know a few people wanted to actually read the article that Skeeter was writing. I decided not to do that this time since A) the interview was long and the article was an entire special edition of the Prophet, and B) we saw the interview the article was based on being taken (more or less). In the future I will have Skeeter articles as needed, but I don't want one to dominate a chapter.**

Christmas Break Part IV: The Family Tapestry

Amos Diggory stared furiously at the images and headline on the front page of the _Daily Prophet_'s Christmas special. "**The Harry Potter Story - A Family Overcoming Hardship**" was the title of the piece, and Amos didn't need to go further than the two pictures beneath it to know that this wasn't going to be good for him.

On the left side was a picture he recognized of James and Lily Potter from their seventh year of Hogwarts, and standing on the other side of Lily from James was the werewolf Remus Lupin, all laughing and joking with each other. To the right of that picture was a much newer one, showing Harry Potter and a boy that the caption identifies as his cousin, Dudley, wandlessly lifting a table and five occupied chairs several feet off the ground before returning them to terra firma without incident.

When he calmed down enough to read the article, Amos was furious all over again. How dare Dumbledore try his social experiments in a school full of children? It didn't matter if the common witch or wizard was swayed by the headmaster's emotional rhetoric, Amos Diggory was confident that the Wizengamot would not approve of the man potentially _training werewolves_ right under their noses.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

No one in the Granger family had ever used a portkey before, and none of them had been properly warned what to expect. As such, "bend your knees" was wholly insufficient advice for not landing in a heap on the other side.

"Agh! It's in my skirt!" Hermione shouted as she jumped up and danced around trying to get the sand off of her, her mother was right behind her but with slightly more dignity. Daniel had managed to keep from landing on his back, but he was still kneeling as he got his bearings back. That calm let him take note of childlike sniggering from behind him, and he turned to find Harry and Dudley fighting to keep from laughing at their situation behind an advancing Remus Lupin.

"Allow me," Remus said as he pointed his wand at the three and all the sand on them magically disappeared, "and sorry for the landing, though I assure you that you'd prefer sand to cobblestone or dirt, and with magic it's easy enough to clean."

"Thank you, but where are the others?" Daniel asked, taking in their surroundings as his wife and daughter hugged Harry and Dudley. They had landed on a beach, probably fifteen meters from the water's edge, and about the same distance from a path that led up a cliff onto the island proper. He could see two cottages at the top of the cliff face, but the distance and angle made it hard to tell their size.

"Vernon and Petunia wanted to take care of something up top before the children got there." the werewolf explained, "We've been down here playing in the sand for about ten minutes while we wait on the okay to go up. I don't think it should be but another five or so."

"Playing in the sand?" Hermione asked as she looked up and down the beach finding no sand castles, just little shapeless mounds of sand here and there.

"Check this out." Dudley said as he took out his wand and incanted a spell as he slowly moved through a long but repetitive series of wand movements, "_Figura Saluta Terra._"

"Dudley! You'll get in trouble!" Hermione shouted before gasping in wonder as the sand where his wand was pointing began flowing together to form a fairly good representation of Hogwarts castle, though without details like windows. The structure crumbled when Dudley released his spell, and Hermione understood what those little mounds she'd seen were.

"This island is under a lot of wards, and the location is known by the Ministry to be owned by a magical family." Remus explained, "If they detect any magic from here then they assume it to be cast by a responsible adult, and won't investigate. The Ministry doesn't like students knowing this, but they can't actually determine if you're using your wand, only that magic was used _near_ it. Say, twenty feet or so; and that is only if the Trace isn't blocked by ward saturation."

"But that is so unfair!" Hermione shouted anew, her mother echoing her outcry behind her, "That means people like Malfoy get extra chances to practice!"

"I don't disagree, but it is what it is." Remus answered, "You should take advantage of it while you're here to show your parents what you've been learning; and keep this in mind, wandless magic doesn't show up on the Ministry trace even if you cast it at home. Don't take that as a license to cause trouble," he chuckled when she scoffed at him, "but if the situation calls for it then you need to know what you can and can't do at home."

"Then why did Aunt Andi get that special exception for us yesterday?" Harry asked. He had decided after the interview yesterday that if Remus was going to be 'Uncle Moony' then Andromeda should be his 'Aunt' as well.

"She didn't need to except that there were pictures taken." Remus returned, "We kept it all above board and by the books for Rita Skeeter, to prevent her from realizing and broadcasting in the paper about wandless magic not being tracked. With an actual class for the art being tentatively introduced, such a revelation could be a disaster. At best, the Wizengamot might ban wandless magic outright. At worst? It could be used to crack down on muggle raised children by criminalizing _real_ accidental magic."

"Oh no." Emma gasped, "But obviously it can't be _too _much of a secret, can it? No offense intended, but you aren't the most 'connected' person are you?"

"Yes and no." He answered, "Most people higher up in the Ministry would know if they tried or cared to find out, but would also understand the implications of spreading that knowledge and wouldn't do so. _I_ know because of Lily. She was gifted with wandless magic, and realized that it wasn't being tracked after she got into trouble in the summer after her first year, but only the one time she used a wand."

"C-can you show me that spell?" Hermione asked, it was clear from how she was practically hopping in place that she had been fighting not to interrupt to ask.

"Of course." Remus answered with an imperceptible frown, "The wand motion, as you saw, is long but simple, and you repeat it a lot. You need to keep doing it until the sand begins moving properly. While you move your wand, the incantation is…"

Hermione had only managed to cast the sand shaping spell somewhat successfully one time before Vernon and Petunia called to them from the top of the cliff that they were ready. She wasn't too worried though, she always did better when she could read about a spell first rather than having it shown to her. Her weak attempt at creating a sand version of her family's home was put on hold as they began the trek up the cliff.

"Something's wrong." Harry said after they had walked the path for a few moments.

"I know what you're feeling Harry," Remus said, "ignore it for now and I'll explain at the top."

The top was less than a minute away, which let on to the others what Harry had noticed almost immediately.

"How did we get up here that fast?" Dudley asked as he peered over the guardrail at the cliff's edge to verify that they _had_, in fact, climbed several hundred steps and ascended almost one hundred feet in basically no time at all.

"There's an enchantment on the stairs," Remus explained, "As long as everyone on the path is going in the same direction, and no one stops, then you can get up or down in about half a minute. We would have been a little quicker if Harry hadn't paused when he realized something was happening. Good sense in noticing by the way, Harry. It's probably the same sense that makes you such a great flyer, I'm impressed."

Harry didn't get a chance to respond to his Uncle Moony's praise, as his eyes were arrested by the sight in front of him. His Aunt Petunia's secret Christmas surprise was clear, as was what she and Uncle Vernon had been doing while they were on the beach. He knew that they were planning on doing this, but he had thought that it would be ready closer to when they'd be returning to school, or even Easter.

Potter Isle was home to two large, two story cottages. Between them there was a cobblestone path that led from the stairs to the beach, passed the houses, and ended at a clearly marked path into the woods on the island. The entire setup was aimed at staying integrated with nature while retaining the basic comforts of a proper home. But what drew Harry's attention, and Hermione's soon after, were the two glass greenhouses that sat on either side of the cobblestone path, filling much of the space between the cottages and the woods. Outside each greenhouse were stacks of crates and bags that Harry assumed contained seed and the like for getting things started. A banner was strung between the two houses with "**Happy Christmas!**" written on it multiple times. The writing appeared to have been done by hand, multiple different ones, and at least one iteration of "Happy Christmas" seemed to have been written by younger children.

"Welcome, Mister Potter," came a timid, but kind, voice from the porch of the cottage on Harry's left, "it's an honour to meet you, my name is Temperance Smith."

Harry tore his eyes away from the pile of treasures that awaited them, Najash could already smell the potting soil from where he was wrapped around his wizard's arm and hissed his own excitement, and looked at the woman who had addressed him. Mrs. Smith was holding a boy that looked about three, and her older children were on either side of her. What Harry couldn't figure out was why the entire family seemed nervous over something.

"Um, you too." Harry replied, "It's nice to meet you ma'am. Just call me Harry." He looked to the children on either side, "Are you Marrielle and James? It's nice to meet you two too."

The two children smiled and giggled as Harry addressed them and the whole group walked forward to join the family on the porch. Once the ice was broken, Temperance relaxed like her children had. After proper introductions had been made, Harry and Hermione made to head for the greenhouses, only to be stopped by Petunia.

"We aren't losing you two to those plants until after we've had a proper Christmas here." She huffed, "After we've exchanged gifts and spent some time together here you can go see what kind of things you received and have all the time until dinner. Okay?"

The three families gathered together in the Smith's cottage and the Grangers were rather surprised at how similar the structure appeared to a non magical home. The only thing that truly marked it as being irregular was the presence of a wood burning stove and the _absence_ of electrical lighting.

"There is one final thing that we need to wait for Andromeda for," Remus explained as he took a small bag out of this pocket and enlarged it, "but she is having Christmas with her husband's family today so she will not be long when she gets here. Let's go ahead and hand these out though."

Remus began removing and distributing boxes one at a time from inside his bag, which now resembled Santa's sack. Hermione, Dudley, and Harry all received wand holsters that fit to their wrists from Remus, who showed them how to key the holsters to their signature to prevent someone from summoning their wands from the holsters. After those had been opened Remus reached further into his bag, revealing more presents addressed from Vernon and Petunia. All the presents that the boys had opened back home had been of the non magical variety, but the animated wrapping paper on these made it clear that they were different. The first person to receive one was Dudley, who's eyes widened comically at the size of the box. The rather _familiar_ size… Opening it, he was elated to find his very own broomstick, a Cleansweep Seven.

"It isn't some ridiculous racing broom like Harry's Nimbus," Petunia said good naturedly as her son examined his gift, "but the salesman said it was much more stable of a ride. Just remember you can't take it to school with you until next year."

"Thanks mum, thanks dad." Dudley said as he excitedly hugged his parents, "Thank you too Uncle Moony." He added as well, garnering a smile from all three.

Sitting back down, he gripped his new broom tighter as he anticipated potentially flying later today. He hated the school brooms because they all seemed like they would fall out of the sky if you were unlucky that flight, but Harry's broom hadn't been much better. It was _fast_, sure; but if you weren't paying close attention, or a natural like Harry, then it was too 'twitchy' and easy to slip on. Cushioning charms don't protect a person from the simple force of acceleration, and if you took a turn wrong or too hard there was nothing holding you to the broom.

Hermione was next, receiving something she wasn't expecting at all. A bottle of a magical hair tonic, as well as a note explaining that she had a year's supply of the stuff on order as well. Deciding that Aunt Petunia wasn't the type to say something mean with a gift, she _knew _that Hermione didn't like fussing over her unmanageable hair, Hermione began reading the bottle to find out more. The tagline at the bottom said that the inventor of the hair tonic, Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, was a "Fleamont Potter." In addition, the small print description on the back said that the potion itself was mildly telepathic, "Literally tell your hair what to do!" a slogan read.

"Thank you Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon." Hermione said as she thought about what the slogan could mean.

"That is the same potion that I use for _my _hair." Petunia explained as she ran a hand through her own tresses, which were much fuller and slightly browner than normal, both as a result of the tonic, "You just think about what you want your hair to do as you put the potion in while combing and it does what you want, within reason." As she explained, Remus gave a wide-eyed and thankful Emma Granger a bag which contained a similar note and bottle.

Hermione stared at the bottle with renewed interest. It could make her hair do _anything? _And do so without taking a lot of extra time?

"Incidentally," Petunia continued, "the potion was invented by Harry's grandfather. I didn't know that back when I was using it ten years ago, but when we were going over Harry's accounts a few months ago I made the connection."

And what a connection it was; Fleamont Potter had apparently quadrupled the Potter fortune off of Sleekeazy's!

"So inventing new potions is like a Potter family tradition?" Harry asked.

"Something like that." Remus explained as he fished through his bag for another gift, "There have been several famous potioneers in the Potter family's history."

The next thing to come out was a pair of large boxes that he gave to a surprised James and Marielle. Inside, they found broomsticks of their own. James pulled out a Quidditch cloak wrapped around the very same _Comet_ that he'd been flying at Potter Lodge, though it had clearly been heavily refurbished and was barely recognizable as the same one; and Marielle squealed in delight when she found a children's learner broom, a kind of broom with an adjustable speed limit, height ceiling, and a sticking charm to guarantee that beginners don't fall off.

"We'll let Harry make sure that you two know how to use those." Vernon said as he studied the two's reactions, "He's a natural."

"James, Marielle, what do you say?" Temperance asked when she saw her children staring at the brooms and not speaking.

"Thank you Aunt Petunia! Thank you Uncle Vernon!" The two children shouted together, mimicking what they'd heard Hermione call the two adults as they gave the pair matching hugs. Temperance glanced at Petunia, worried that the woman might take offense, but the broad smile that the squib had on her face assuaged those worries.

After it appeared that all the gifts had been given and opened except for those the three first years were giving to each other, those were being saved for Friday with all their other friends, Remus took Harry aside to offer one final present. Unwrapping the limp packaging, Harry found an extraordinarily light, thin, silvery looking cloak.

"This belonged to your father, Harry." Remus almost whispered as Harry felt the fabric run over his fingers, the boy looked up in shock as he continued, "It is a Potter family heirloom."

"It feels magical?" Harry answered, his tone asking a question he wasn't able to voice.

"May I?" Remus asked, holding out his hand. When Harry gave it to him, Remus put on the cloak and immediately disappeared!

"It's an invisibility cloak." Remus explained as he removed the cloak and returned to view, presenting the enchanted garment to Harry once more, "But not just any old cloak, this is the best invisibility cloak anyone I know has ever seen. That includes Dumbledore."

"He has one too." Harry added after a moment, "He had a cloak that looked a lot like this one that time he snuck up on me and Hermione in the room with the magic mirror."

"I have a strong suspicion that it was the same cloak, Harry." His uncle replied with a distasteful look. Albus should not have been using the cloak for personal amusement, it wasn't his, "Your father apparently lent it to him to study while he and your mother were in hiding and he has kept it all this time, only giving it to me to pass to you a few days ago. He said he wanted to figure out how to replicate the longevity of the Potter Cloak, which actually _does _make sense. Most invisibility cloaks last less than a decade before the demiguise fur loses its potency, and even that is already enhanced by spells and enchantments. But that cloak is generations old and going strong. James thought it went back at least two hundred years, maybe more."

"This is so cool." Harry said after he ran to a nearby mirror and tossed the cloak over himself, giggling as he flipped the hood off to reveal only his head.

"When he gave it back, the headmaster admitted to making a modification to the cloak. One that I happen to think is a good idea." Remus said, his tone telling Harry that he wasn't going to like this too much, "He added an extra thread of demiguise fur and put a tracking charm on that thread, whatever makes the cloak so special also prevented the charm from sticking to the garment itself."

"So the headmaster will always know where I am while I'm wearing this?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Remus confirmed, "and so will I. I had him give me a key to the tracking charm as well. I also had him show me where, exactly, the enchanted thread is. When the time comes, we can remove it if it hasn't already lost its potency and become visible by then."

Harry looked like he wasn't sure about the headmaster being able to spy on him, "I know it seems like it defeats the point of the cloak, Harry. But, unlike the Map, this can get you in real trouble. Your aunt knows about it, and I wouldn't be giving it to you, unrestricted, without her permission. She agreed with me, though, that you should have it."

"Well, it _was_ my dad's." Harry said, not sure why there would have been a discussion at all.

"Yes, and it will be great for playing pranks on your cousin and Hermione when you are home from school." The werewolf uncle conceded, "But it isn't really the kind of thing you _should _have at Hogwarts. In our day there was a war going on, and it could sometimes spill into the school corridors with overly malicious pranks. That isn't an excuse today, but considering the incidents that seem to keep happening around you, we felt that you should have this at school for protection. The tracking charm is just the last bit of that protection, I'd like you to keep the cloak with you as often as possible. Just in case."

"I guess that makes sense." Harry said as he processed what he'd been told, "But at least I get to take it to Hogwarts like my dad did."

Remus Lupin couldn't help but smile at how Harry's face lit up at that prospect.

"My present for you isn't nearly this awesome," Harry confessed as he offered his uncle a small bag that he had brought with him into the room, "but here it is."

Remus pulled a 'U' shaped pillow out of the bag, and felt some sort of hard, square thing inside the pillow when he held it. When he wasn't immediately sure what it was for, Harry explained, "It's a neck-pillow. People wear them when they travel so they can sleep sitting up, but they are good for just sitting around if you have neck pain."

The werewolf grinned as he took a nearby seat and hooked the pillow behind his neck, but frowned when he felt the hard piece directly at the back.

"_That_ pillow is a little cooler than that, though." Harry continued, realizing that Moony probably had no chance of figuring it out, "I don't know if it will work here but it comes with batteries; the plastic piece in the pillow vibrates to massage your neck and shoulders. It felt really good in the store."

The device _did_ work, apparently being simple enough not to be disrupted by the wards on the island. Simple or not, Remus could barely believe that muggles had invented something _this_ wonderful.

Harry and Moony returned to the family room in time to see Andromeda had only just flooed in through the fireplace. She appeared rushed, and had a large stack of folders under one arm and a larger, bendy cylinder wrapped in brown paper under the other while she also held a bag that contained little boxes in it.

"I'm sorry I'm a little behind schedule." Andromeda said as she laid her things on an empty spot of the table, "Thank you for having all of us here, Temperance."

The woman in question nodded and smiled demurely. These people had done so much for her and her children already that she just couldn't believe how much they were trying to make them a part of their family. She also still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that the very same Andromeda Black that she had looked up to when she was in school had been the one to verify that their floo worked properly, all so that they could keep anyone in the Ministry from knowing who was living here until the parchmentwork had gone through.

"Harry," Andromeda continued after she had given everyone the gifts she had gotten for them, mostly chocolates because she didn't know them that well, "I was late because I have extra something for you." She gestured to the wrapped cylinder, "It took a bit of work to get put together, but I think it should be as close to complete as possible. I have been working on it since a couple days after Halloween."

When Harry went to open the parcel Andromeda quickly magicked all of the dishes off the table so that there would be room. Tearing the paper and unrolling the contents revealed a magnificently illuminated tapestry. On it were dozens of names with lines connecting them, larger printed names were often surrounded by smaller ones arranged into miniature versions of the whole, which was stylized to look like running ivy. Harry understood what he was looking at by the time he reached the bottom and saw his own name connected to the names "James Potter" and "Lily Potter (nee Evans)."

"The original Potter Family Tapestry was lost in an attack by You-Know-Who," Andromeda explained, she didn't mention that it was the same attack that had taken his grandparents, "so I made requests of several families that I knew were closely related to the Potters to see if I could fill in information that couldn't be easily obtained from the Ministry. The larger names are those who either were born or married into the Potter family. Smaller names are in-laws and such that are only one generation away. I'm sure there are gaps, but the magic woven into it will let us change it a little if we discover any."

Harry hungrily took in the family tree laid out before him, committing the names to memory. _Fleamont Potter, Charlus Potter, Dorea Potter (nee Black)... _Harry had never thought too much about the members of his missing family besides his parents, but as he walked back through the tree he started finding other names he recognized. Then he started seeing them _repeat_.

_Longbottom, Bones, Abbot, __**Bones**__, Jones, __**Longbottom**__…_ Harry suddenly developed a sinking feeling in his stomach as he started again, from the top this time. Inferring relationships that weren't on the tree from last names (the magical world didn't have as much of a problem as the non magical one with regards to multiple families having the same surname), Harry followed a family line that ran parallel to his for several generations.

As he did, his face turned pale and his breathing became shallow, causing the others around him to look at the tapestry to try and discover what was wrong. Hermione was the first to see what Harry had, and whispered what it was to her parents eliciting a hiss of alarm from her mother.

"What is it?" Andromeda asked, clearly mystified as to what had left Harry seemingly terrified.

"Is this normal?" Harry's voice was barely a whisper as he traced several names in a row linked by marriage and said aloud their apparent _pre-marital _connection, "Cousin, niece, step-sister, second cousin, grand niece… Is this real?"

Petunia placed an arm around Harry's shoulder as she looked down at the tapestry, she had heard Harry's questions and understood what he was seeing. What he was probably worried about…

"It will be alright Harry." She whispered to her nephew as he sat back down on the couch. He was clearly panicked, and she felt like she knew why, though she felt that his personal reaction was unfounded, "If _you _were going to have problems they would have shown themselves by now."

"Could someone please tell me what I did wrong?" Andromeda asked, beginning to panic as she observed Harry's unexpected reaction.

"Andromeda… how many children does the average magical family have?" Petunia asked, almost conversationally, as she kept Harry pulled tight in her embrace. "I know you said you had two sisters, but you also mentioned that that wasn't very common at all, and only happened because your father wanted a son and tried to force the issue."

"I don't know," Andromeda replied, "Probably a normal of one per family, though some, like mine, insist on having a male heir and have children until they do. Most parents that have a magical child tend to stop having more to avoid the stress and risk that comes from trying, and to minimize the risk of having a squib. No offense, Petunia."

"I… see." Petunia Dursley may not actually want to _be_ a doctor, or healer, or whatever, but she had helped Harry learn everything he wanted to know about such things as he grew up. They couldn't get into subjects that were especially advanced, but basic health and medical concepts weren't foreign to either of them. Neither were the very basics of genetics. She knew what she was looking at here, "When did having squibs start to become a common problem? I see a little more variety with first names at the top of this tree than I do at the bottom."

"What is it dear?" Vernon asked, clearly as clueless as the magically raised in the room.

"Just a moment Vernon." Petunia shushed her husband, "Andromeda I have one more question, and I will understand if the information is protected but… how common are birth defects, aside from being a squib, in the pureblood magical world? Or miscarriages?"

Andromeda seemed utterly confused by the seemingly meaningless question, but she had an answer nonetheless, "I suppose it is similar to the non magical statistics. Almost all families have to try a few times for a successful pregnancy, but I wouldn't know specific numbers. Many pureblood families have home births, so we only know when there is a problem if they have to bring the child to us at St. Mungo's or if the family doesn't have a new child with them when they should. It has been like that for ages."

"You're saying the _overwhelming majority _of pure magical families have to deal with pregnancy issues or birth defects? So much so that the norm is one child and then quit to avoid hardship? And this, despite having ready access to a hospital?" Emma Granger was incredulous, "How can you stand there looking like you have no idea why that might be and still call yourself a medical professional? That is absolutely _not _how it works for the rest of us!"

"Dear, I understand but there's no reason to be rude." Her husband tried to placate her even as he fought to keep his own emotions in check as he looked again over the Potter Family 'Tree.' It wasn't a tree, it was a bush that bent back in on itself and apparently tangled up with a few other bushes for good measure! There were three or four families that seemed to marry back into the Potters _over and over again_, going back twelve generations!

"What about muggleborn like Hermione?" Dan asked, momentarily worried that this was some issue with magic in general.

"Most muggleborn have their regular medical issues taken care of in the muggle world to be honest, so I don't know." Andromeda answered before looking slightly ashamed, "There are higher costs for muggleborn patients at St. Mungos since the rates are, unfortunately, set by a Ministry committee. Because of that we only really see muggleborn if the injury or ailment is completely magical and can't be fixed otherwise. Ted and I make house calls for muggleborn for exactly that reason. I wouldn't think the process of childbirth would be different between the worlds though."

_I wouldn't count on it,_ Dan and Emma thought to themselves.

Harry and Hermione filed away what they learned about St. Mungos and muggleborn, it was all they could do not to shout at the injustice of that though. The hospital charged a premium to take care of them, but seemed to have no problem _employing_ non-purebloods if Ted Tonks was anything to go by. _'Soon' _Harry mouthed to Hermione as he saw her chewing her bottom lip, she nodded and smiled.

Petunia was about to explain to Andromeda why Harry was having a nervous fit but realized that their conversation might be too adult for the Smith children, who already looked a little uncomfortable, and leaned towards their mother to whisper, "Temperance, would you mind taking the younger children out of the room for just a minute? I don't want to risk upsetting them further."

After she had ushered her two out of the room, Petunia answered Andromeda's previous question with yet another question, "Do you know what 'inbreeding' is?"

"How animal populations that stay isolated, like on farms, can have problems?" Andromeda answered, "Sure, why?"

"It isn't just animals." Harry supplied, "Its people too."

"Marrying your sister is discouraged by all but the most ridiculous of blood purists, Harry." Remus chided.

"But what about your second cousin? That's still a problem. Especially if it happens frequently." Emma insisted.

"That's silly," Andromeda chuckled, "if that were true then we would be seeing… oh dear." Her face fell and her chuckle died as she realized what was being implied.

"Older Potters had larger families and it is not like there was an issue with infant mortality either, almost all of these children marry and have children." Petunia explained, pointing to the clear evidence on the tapestry. The top of the tapestry had families that averaged four children, whereas the last three generations had had only a single child each.

"In addition, there are these families that married into the Potters multiple times. It seems that there were more of _them_ earlier as well, so it looks like other families followed the same downward trend. But of course, we would need to check that."

"They did, at least mine and those close to us did." Temperance said from behind them, Heathcliff still in her arms "I'm sorry to listen in, don't worry, the children are playing with those toy dragons that Remus got them. But my own family is the same way, before my own children that is. My father has an older brother, but both he and my uncle each only have one child and _their _parents were both only children. I am several years older than my cousin, and I remember my aunt getting pregnant a few times before he was born. My father had a tapestry like this one, I always wondered what it would have been like to have siblings like it said my great-grandfather had. I guess I'm lucky that Joseph and I never had any problems."

The two muggle doctors in the room had no illusion that it was luck. Joseph was completely non magical, as far from being related to Temperance as he could possibly have been.

"Our royal families did this to themselves too." Emma added, "The monarchies of European countries married within their families to 'keep the blood pure,' a sentiment shared by some magicals if I understand things correctly. By the eighteenth century, those royal families were becoming riddled with hereditary issues. The horrible kind that aren't polite to speak of."

"Magical folk live longer." Petunia offered, "So the effects wouldn't appear as quickly. But failed pregnancies after difficulty getting that way are the first and most obvious ones."

They spoke for a few more minutes comparing anecdotal evidence that Andromeda could present against what was known by non magical medicine. By the end, Andromeda was convinced that they were on to something and was already planning in her head which medical reports she would need to pull to acquire solid proof.

"Well," Andromeda sighed as she realized how much time has passed, "I suppose it is a good thing I got that out of the way so that I can leave on a happy note."

"Don't say that Aunt Andi!" Harry exclaimed as he jumped up to hug her, "I appreciate it, I really do! I was just shocked is all."

"I am glad, Harry." She said as she returned the hug, "The tapestry has all of the normal family enchantments on it too, so, _way _in the future when you get married you and your wife will need to add a drop of blood to it. Once you do that, the tapestry will fully activate and magically update itself whenever new people join your family."

"That's awesome Aunt Andi." Harry said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome Harry." She replied as she grabbed the stack of folders she had come in with and called Temperance to sit beside her.

"Mrs. Smith, I have here one last Christmas gift for you and your family." Andromeda said as she presented the top folder to the woman. Inside she was greeted with the parchmentwork to take her and her children under the official protectorship of House Potter.

"There are a few spots that you and Harry need to sign before I can finalize things." She continued, "But if we do that today then it will be official by midnight tomorrow."

Temperance could barely keep her hand steady as she signed the documents necessary to ensure that her children got to go to Hogwarts like they had always dreamed. But her gift wasn't complete yet. After all the signatures had been finished there was one more page underneath.

"What is this?" She asked aloud as she read what was actually the specific terms of protection for the Smith family. The only thing that the Potters were expecting of her and the children was to keep the two cottages on Potter Isle clean and habitable, in exchange they were given full rights to the house they were currently in _and_ were to begin receiving a monthly stipend beginning on January first. It didn't escape her notice that the stipend was explicitly stated to be separate from the salary she was receiving for her work on the other Potter properties.

"It's too much." She said as her eyes filled with tears, "This is too much."

"It may not have been as extreme as you," Vernon said to silence her, "but we know what it's like to have to make sacrifices for your children. We know how hard it was for us, and we had each other to make it through. Accept this. Even if you can't do it for yourself, do it for the children. For James and Marrielle and Heathcliff."

After Andromeda left, the three family groups stayed inside for a while and got to know each other better. Eventually Dudley convinced the parents to let all the kids with a broom (everyone except Hermione) go flying to make sure that the youngest knew how. Of _course _it had nothing to do with wanting to test out his own new broom.

While the boys were flying Hermione held Najash, which led to once again having to explain how he wasn't dangerous or venomous at all. Hermione did decide, though, that telling the Smiths that Harry was actually a parseltongue could wait until he was back on the ground and could do it himself.

Three hours later, with only twenty minutes left until dinner and no chance to continue afterwards, the two aspiring Healers were taking a quick inventory of what they had received for the greenhouses as they had a private conversation for the first time since Hermione had arrived. That conversation quickly strayed off of their plans for trying to get ahead on potions over summer break.

"My aunt told me why you were grounded when you came home." Harry said without preamble, he thought there had to be some other reason and his aunt had ultimately confirmed his suspicion after the get together yesterday, "The real reason, not that you weren't exercising with me and Dudley."

"I'm really sorry Harry." She replied, "I was just so sure that it was him doing it, and I didn't think things through."

"S'okay Hermione." Harry consoled her before grinning, "Mistakes remind us that you're human." Hermione sputtered for a moment and smacked his arm playfully. "But it's sort of like the thing with the house elves, Hermione. You should make sure you've learned the truth before you start hexing people."

"Seriously though," he continued, "It's okay, really. I get that he doesn't do much to make people trust him." Harry pulled her into a hug to hide that he was blushing as he finished, "I'm glad you're looking out for me Hermione. You're the best."

Hermione's smile at that moment could have been measured in gigawatts.

**AN: I assure anyone who is wondering that I have a plan concerning "Elemental Magic" which the spell Moony taught them appears to fall under. A slightly better explanation of that will be coming in a future chapter.**


	25. Chapter 24: The Rat

Christmas Break Part V: The Rat

The Weasley family had never, in their family's entire history, been accused of arriving to a scheduled meeting even a _moment_ early. Case in point, the entire family sans the two oldest sons who had moved out were preparing for their respective vacations, even though the timed portkey that most of them were taking would be leaving in fifteen minutes.

"Ron! Have you finished packing?" Molly Weasley yelled up the stairs, "We're all leaving soon!"

Up in his room Ron Weasley sighed in frustration. _Yes he had already packed!_ _There was no way he was missing the chance to hang out with, and maybe even learn wandless magic from, Harry and Dudley!_

"Yes mum!" He yelled back down past his closed door, "I'm getting Scabbers ready!"

The rat in question had been contemplating how he was going to escape from the Weasleys while they were on holiday in Romania for three days now. One close call with Remus was enough for him. At first Scabbers thought that Ronald was being sent to Muriel's as a form of punishment, and he would have to escape from there, but the boy was packing far too much for that. Apparently he _had_ been invited to Potter's home, but his family was making him go to Romania with them. That was the only explanation for the lack of enthusiasm the boy had shown earlier in the week. _Perfect._

Of course, it never occured to the rat that Ronald could be depressed because he had not been permitted to get a _new wand_ for Christmas.

Scabbers remained quiet as Ron closed his trunk and picked up the pet carrier the rat occupied. The boy didn't know how to magically seal the cage, so Scabbers intended to facilitate his escape as soon as he saw an opening in Romania. If he managed to grab Ronald's wand on the way, then he would even be able to apparate!

"Finally, Ron." Arthur Weasley rushed to help his son get his trunk to the hearth. "We need to floo quickly so I can get back to make the portkey with the others."

"Don't forget this Ron!" Ginny called out from behind him, where she was holding one of the family's old broomsticks.

"I thought mum said no?" He asked. In fact, his mother had been adamant that he wouldn't take a broom, or fly on someone else's, because it was possible that there wouldn't be a _wizard_ chaperone. His father had been angry about it, but hadn't seemed to press the issue when it came up after he was allowed to go again following that special interview Harry did.

"I decided it wouldn't be right for you to be the only one not on a broom." Arthur explained, "I wrote Mister Lupin about it Christmas day, and apparently Dudley Dursley received a broom from his parents."

In the middle of this discussion, Scabbers the rat began acting up. He ran all over his carrier, throwing it off balance and almost causing Ron to drop it. Before that could happen, much to the rodent's horror, Arthur tagged the carrier with an unbreakable charm and a locking charm in quick succession.

"You can get Scabbers settled down when we're there," he said, "we need to leave. Remember son, the address is 'Potter Isle' and there is apparently a password on the location. So after you say the address you also need to say 'Najash,' whatever that means."

"It's Harry's pet's name." Ron supplied as he spared a glance at his own pet, no longer trying to escape but simply shivering in obvious fear. Maybe they could go by Diagon Alley while he was with Harry and visit the pet store? Scabbers wasn't looking so well.

"I see, I'll go on ahead. Don't tarry." Arthur said before tossing the Floo Powder into the hearth and disappearing in a flash of green fire.

When Ron passed through the floo thirty seconds later he saw his father talking to Mister Lupin and Harry several feet away. He didn't get to take in much else before a girl that looked about the same age as Ginny literally jumped into his field of view with Dudley walking up beside her.

"Hi!" She said in that sing-song voice that only younger sisters know how to make, "I'm Tina!"

Across the room, Remus and Harry were trying to explain why they wanted to check on Ron's rat without mentioning parseltongue, "I'm sure you've heard, but Harry here is an aspiring healer. He also likes animals though. He er… noticed at the end of term that Ron's seemed off. He asked me if I could take a look? I have some experience with simple veterinary care."

"The thing's nerves were shot this morning, almost panicked his way right out of the cage." Arthur replied, "I'm sure it's nothing, the poor thing's just old. But if you like, I guess it might save us a trip to the pet care store in Diagon Alley."

Remus nodded and drew his wand as he walked over to the redhead talking to Tina and Dudley. Harry had begged him to check on Ron's rat when he got here because Najash apparently _insisted_ that there was something wrong with the thing. The snake was sure that whatever it was was dangerous somehow, but that just didn't make any sense. It was confident that if it had seen the rat more than the one time, when it was already preoccupied, it would have figured out the issue, but Remus had his doubts. If Harry hadn't turned his child-begging eyes to full power then he would have probably told him it was nothing, but that pleading gaze was absolutely cheating!

By the time Remus began walking across the room, wand in hand, towards him, Scabbers knew the game was up. He had spent the last minute pretending to still be immobilized by fear (not that he wasn't afraid, he was terrified) while he planned out his desperate escape. Before he had a chance to do anything though, Harry Potter called out a warning, too late, to Remus.

"Wait, it's dangerous!"

The werewolf turned back to Potter as Scabbers enacted his plan. Arthur Weasley may be a crazy, muggle obsessed basket case, but his eccentricities were going to be the rat's only chance. The man had placed an unbreakable charm on the carrier, but it was one of those new muggle types where the bottom popped out. The bottom was able to be completely removed, so it's connection to the rest of the carrier would not be maintained by an unbreakable charm.

While Remus momentarily had his back turned to the hearth a man's body exploded out of the bottom of the pet carrier. The man grabbed the closest child he could, a screaming Tina Polkiss, as he leveled a wand at her. The intruder looked ridiculous with his head still stuck in a clear plastic pet carrier but his words, and Tina's screams, kept anyone from laughing.

"Stop struggling girl!" He hissed as he pointed the wand at the struggling girl with his left hand and he gestured with his encumbered head towards Dudley, "You, boy, activate the floo!"

The non magical adults were adding to the chorus of screams as the wand in the stranger's hand lit with a deadly looking purple glow that flickered unsteadily, meanwhile the adult magicals in the room save for Temperance all had their wands trained on the man and hostage.

"One of you tries to cast and I'll kill her." The man said, "Activate the floo and let me go and she'll be fine." Tina was now crying limply in the rat-turned-man's grip as the standoff went on. None of the adults were naive enough to think the man would actually abandon his hostage like that, and only her mother was desperate enough to think of taking the chance.

The time of the standoff gave Ron a chance to get his bearings and find out what was going on, he had been knocked to his knees when the man exploded out of the rat carrier. _Is Scabbers alright?_ He thought desperately to himself as he glanced around and didn't see his companion. Looking back at the man with the carrier on his head, Ron saw something else that was his, poking into a little girl's neck even!

Ron was _not_ stupid. It was obvious that this man had to _be_ Scabbers, somehow, for the chain of events that just happened to be real. He also knew that the man demanding the floo connection be opened wouldn't take it to some special location because he'd have to yell it out loud and everyone would hear it; but that meant that he would floo somewhere crowded and public, like the Leaky Cauldron or the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade. If he did that, he would want to keep the girl (Tina?) in case he was followed and so he'd have a hostage until he could apparate. This girl was one of Harry and Dudley's muggle friends, if he remembered right, there was no way he could let this weird guy take her off somewhere!

But how to stop him? Ron glanced at his wand again. _I know something _you_ don't know_, he thought evilly as he pretended to comply with "Scabbers'" demands.

The man formerly known as Scabbers grinned under the sweaty plastic of the rat carrier as young Ronald edged towards the mantle with the floo powder, "Good Ronald, good." He said, lowering his wand a hair as he began to turn towards the fire.

That was when Ron made his move.

The redhead surged directly at the rat shouting, "Shoot at me!" as he made to grab at the man. Predictably, he turned the wand on Ron and fired. Unfortunately for Scabbers, Ron hadn't taken him to a class since he fell in with Harry Potter, so he had no idea how poorly the spello-taped wand actually performed. Basically every spell more complex than _Lumos_ that Ron had tried to cast since it snapped had failed or fizzled for the last month. The stronger the spell, however, the more apt it was to backfire violently.

That was exactly what happened now as the wand exploded in violet light and the rat-man screamed in pain. Ron didn't waste his chance, extending his reach to grab Tina Polkiss, who had been released when the wand backfired. The moment he had her wrist Ron pulled the girl to him and leapt backwards, landing hard on his shoulder before rolling over Tina to keep any more spellfire away from her.

His worries were unnecessary, as the intruder was out cold after the wand exploded in his hand. Instead, Ron saw that the girl had a splinter of wand stuck in her cheek and plucked it out, "Sorry." He muttered when she winced.

The two children jerked upright when Temperance Smith screamed and fainted. Ron turned to look back at the man to see what was wrong, only to grip Tina even tighter and pull both of them away and behind the line of adults.

The exploding wand had shredded the man's sleeve on that arm. There, faded but still imminently visible, was the Dark Mark!

"Arthur Weasley, you had best have a good explanation for this!" Augusta Longbottom shouted from where she stood by the table with her wand trained on the unconscious death eater. She had stayed for a few minutes with Neville to meet Vernon and Petunia, and was still there enjoying tea, "Who is this, even?"

"I… I can answer that, ma'am." A wide eyed and emotional Remus Lupin answered, "This man is Peter Pettigrew!"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Amelia Bones almost fell over herself backing up when the floo connection in the auror ready room activated just moments before she was going to toss in some powder of her own. Her surprise turned to shock and disbelief when Augusta Longbottom stepped out of the floo and immediately addressed her.

"Madame Bones, excellent." She said, affected her most imperious voice, "Have I interrupted something?"

Amelia held up the briefcase that she was holding, "I was on my way to Azkaban to question one of the inmates under veritaserum, can I help you madame?"

"You can come with me, and bring that veritaserum." Augusta returned as she leaned in and lowered her voice, "A marked death eater who has apparently escaped discovery for ten years just infiltrated a warded property owned by Harry Potter and attempted to kidnap a muggleborn friend of Harry's when he was discovered. We have him stunned and bound, but we'll also need animagus suppression charms. Bloody death eater snuck in disguised as a rat."

Amelia needed only two minutes to leave and return with backup. Augusta recognized Kingsley Shacklebolt, one of Amelia's top (and longest serving) aurors, as he fell into step behind his boss and nodded. The man was well known for taking the time to properly handle cases and not letting politics get in the way. So much so that he'd gotten in trouble over it before.

If anyone else had told Amelia Bones that they had captured an unknown death eater she would have dismissed them as hysterical and sent them home with a trainee to make them feel better, but there was not a soul in the Ministry who could ever call Augusta Longbottom "hysterical" with a straight face. Nothing, however, could have prepared her for what she found waiting for her after passing through the floo to Potter Isle.

"Is that who I think it is?" She asked as she gazed at the disheveled, unconscious man bound to a chair with two wands trained on him. The Dark Mark on his arm was still exposed, and drove away any thought that this man might deserve the benefit of the doubt.

"Ma'am, this is Peter Pettigrew!" Kingsley exclaimed as he recognized who it was, "But he's dead! Black killed him!"

"Obviously not." Amelia hissed, barely able to contain her rage, "Now get those animagus suppression cuffs on him, I want to know what _else_ Sirius Black might not have done."

"What do you mean?" Petunia asked, getting a curious look from the two aurors, "Remus told us that this is Peter Pettigrew, but what does that _mean_? Did you find anything out from Black's trial? We never received the transcript."

"You're Harry Potter's aunt?" She asked, "Petunia Dursley?" At the woman's nod, she explained, "I'm Amelia Bones, the Head of the DMLE, a pleasure to meet you. When I went to pull the trial transcripts I discovered that there wasn't one. As far as I can tell, there wasn't a trial at all. I was actually on my way to question Sirius about it in Azkaban when Madame Longbottom came through the floo."

"Suspect secured." Kingsley interjected as he gestured to the suppression cuffs that were glowing slightly, indicating that they were functioning correctly.

"Before I start asking him questions, are there still children here?" Amelia queried, she definitely did not want them nearby to hear this. She had a bad feeling that _she_ wasn't going to want to hear this.

"Yes ma'am," Remus answered, "but they aren't in the building. There are two cottages on this island, we had all the children go to the other one. There are several adults over there watching them as well."

"That is perfect," she replied, "I may have questions depending on what I find out from Pettigrew."

"Go make sure Tina and the others are alright." Remus said as he put a hand on Petunia's shoulder, "I can stay and give you a report later. You are worrying yourself spare. If Madame Bones needs you she will know where you are."

After Petunia had left the cottage, Remus turned to Amelia, "I insist on being present for this. House Potter has spent the last ten years thinking this man was murdered by another who was brother in all but blood to James and I. I _need _to hear the truth about it."

"Alright," Amelia sighed as Kingsley pulled out and set up a Dicto-Quill for the imminent interrogation, "but refrain from speaking or interfering. If it appears that you will be a problem I will have to have you removed."

"Of course, ma'am." Remus replied as he took a spot next to Augusta and Arthur to act as witnesses to the questioning.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I'm so sorry guys, I had no idea!" Ron had spent the last ten minutes intermittently repeating to his friends that he didn't know about Pettigrew, and would never have willingly put one of them in danger. No one doubted him, and they had already told him such, but that didn't stop him from circling back to blaming himself after every silence longer than a few seconds. Ron found his gaze repeatedly being dragged over to the couch where Tina Polkiss was still shivering and holding onto her parents and brother for dear life. Dudley, Harry, and Hermione were hovering around them, all unsure of what to do to comfort their friend.

Ron almost shrieked when a hand came down on his shoulder, but a moment to realize it was gentle and not angry got him to calm down and look up to see who it was.

"Thank you, Ronald." Petunia said as she held his shoulder, her eyes on Tina, "Your father is probably going to scold you for putting yourself in danger, but had you not reacted so quickly I don't think that would have been resolved without someone being hurt."

"But it was my fault." Ron muttered.

"Nonsense." Petunia replied, "I asked your father about that rat while we waited on law enforcement to get here, specifically when you got it. Ten years is an awfully old rat. When Remus mentioned the fact that brown rats usually only live about four or five years, he got a confused look on his face before saying he had somehow forgotten that. I believe he is going to get himself tested for magic that would keep him from noticing the oddities."

Ron was startled at that idea. That would mean that Scabbers, Pettigrew rather, had walked around the Burrow and used one of their wands on them at some point! _What else could that freak have done?_ He thought to himself as he began to turn as green as the trim of his school robes.

"Are you okay Ron?" Dudley asked, causing the others to notice the sick expression on his face.

"He slept in my bed," Ron's voice was barely a whisper, but no one could miss what he said, "I let him do it all the time."

Petunia dropped onto the cushioned armrest of the chair the redhead was sitting in, immediately pulling the boy into a bone crushing hug, "Never again he won't."

"Thank you for saving me." Tina broke Ron out of his downward spiral as she stood in front of him with her parents right behind, "I'm sorry I didn't say it earlier."

"S'no problem." Ron answered, "Are you okay? Did you get hurt when my wand blew up?"

"I'm okay." She said, touching her cheek where a splinter of that wand had stuck her. Mrs. Smith had healed it as soon as they'd sat down so there wasn't even a mark, "I was just really scared."

"Thank you young man." Timothy said, "You risked your life for my daughter. If there's something we can do for you-"

"It's okay, I was fine sir, I promise." Ron said, "I knew my wand wouldn't work, it hasn't since it broke last month. I was just worried that he'd take Tina through the floo."

"You were still right heroic in the act, son." Vernon offered.

"Yeah," Parvati added from where she was sitting with her sister, "you were almost like a Gryffindor back there."

"Oi," Ron called back lightheartedly, "there's no reason to insult me now is there?_ I_ had a plan like any self-respecting Slytherin!"

And with that the children finally relaxed, intermittent chuckles evolving into full-blown laughter from all the first years, as well as Tina and the Smith children. The adults scattered throughout the room let out a collective breath that they hadn't realized they were holding as they realized their children were going to be okay.

With the stress of the situation dissipated though, Ron began to wonder exactly how everything had happened the way it had in the other building… You can't survive in Slytherin House un-hexed and un-jinxed if you don't keep stock of what was happening around you and learn from mistakes.

Why was Mister Lupin coming towards him with his wand out already? Did he know, and if so, how? Harry called out that it was dangerous _before_ everything went down, how did he know?

"How did you know?" Ron asked Harry as the general laughing died down and the group had begun chatting again, "That something would happen, I mean? You called out before anything started."

"Uuh," Harry stumbled. In that moment he realized that he hadn't told the Smiths about that either, "Najash told me. He saw Scabbers once at school and thought something was wrong, didn't know what though. In the heat of the moment, earlier, my wand started hissing at me and that's how I knew something was _really _wrong. That's why I tried to stop Uncle Moony."

"Harry, snakes don't talk." Ron chuckled, jokingly at first, but when Harry didn't laugh with him and simply fixed him with one of his 'do _better_'stares like he sometimes gave in Potions his laughing turned more nervous.

"You're kidding right?" Ron asked, his eyes bugging out slightly as his gaze drifted to Harry's right arm where the snake always was.

"What do you mean about your wand hissing?" Petunia added, "I didn't know that it had made noises at you again since you got it."

"It does sometimes, usually little chirps, and I figured out that it was mostly warning me about danger or something." Harry dutifully answered, "It did that in the halls sometimes and when I looked around there was usually a Slytherin or two that looked like they were waiting to prank me hiding a little ways up. Today was the first day I've ever heard it actually _hiss_ like a snake though."

"Are you saying you're a parselmouth?" Temperance asked quietly as Petunia nodded at her nephew's answer. A danger warning alarm was pretty useful for a wand, why did Dudders have to get the one that short circuits nearby electronics when he's excited?

_~Would you like to check on Tina, er… Little-Witch now?~_ Harry Spoke in answer to Mrs. Smith's question, causing both her and Ron to gasp. Najash still had trouble remembering names except for Harry's, he generally assigned ones of his own, _~I am explaining that I can Speak. They might be scared.~_

_~I want to know she is unharmed Harry. The Rat-Man wanted to hurt her. Then I want to rest on Nest-Of-Hair's head. You should let your hair grow like hers, you are not as comfortable~_

Having just laughed quite a bit, Harry couldn't suppress his snort at Najash's pet-name for Hermione as the snake poked out of the end of Harry's sleeve. Harry held his arm out towards Tina, who took the snake from him with a questioning look on her face as Harry explained what had been said between them, though he left out the serpent's nickname for her.

"I'm not sure how many people will be willing to let you bring a serpent around while treating them Harry, no offense." Temperance said once Harry had finished explaining about how Najash wanted to help him with healing and his parseltongue abilities were facilitating that. Padma and Parvati explaining to the group how that is actually a common career for them in India helped a little as well.

"We'll see." Harry responded. All in all, Mrs. Smith hadn't reacted too negatively to him being a Speaker. Either she really didn't care that much, or she was simply grateful enough not to say anything about it, and for the moment whichever it was was fine with Harry.

Ron was a different story. After the shock of learning that Harry had hidden this from him, Ron had burst into hysterical giggles and taken quite a while to be able to explain what had set him off.

"Mate, if Malfoy found out he'd freak, Nott too. Definitely save it for when you can get one of them with it." Ron said with a final chuckle as he thought for a moment before continuing, "If I'd been put in Gryffindor I think would probably be just like my family and assume you were dark or something if I ever heard about it. But I've been in the dungeons since September, the Slytherins that actually have snakes are mostly the ones that talk to us first years and offer help. It kinda messes up some of what I was raised to believe, you know?"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Remus had been placed under a silencing charm by Arthur Weasley shortly after the interrogation of Peter Pettigrew had begun to prevent him from being thrown out, and a throwaway comment from the rat about the Longbottoms being the intended "next target" after the Potters had forced him to do the same to Augusta only moments later. By the end of the half-hour questioning Remus had ultimately requested he be magically stuck to his seat as well, lest he leap out of it and strangle the damnable traitor in front of him.

Amelia Bones was using every bit of her professional control, as well as Occlumency, to keep herself under control as well. _Sirius Black was innocent!_ The truth rang through her head as she fought to keep her cool and plan out how to make sure that justice was served. Not only in getting Sirius out of the hell he was being subjected to, but also to make sure that the ones who put him there _paid_.

"Kingsley, get him to a holding cell and make sure no one knows who he is until I'm ready." Amelia ordered once she'd deactivated the Dicto-Quill, "Choose as few aurors as possible, that you trust implicitly, to keep a watch on him."

"Yes ma'am." Kingsley said, creating and activating a portkey directly to said holding cell.

As she stared at the empty space they had occupied, Amelia finalized her plan for getting Sirius out as soon as possible, "Remus, can you meet me at the Ministry building in an hour? Take that time to explain to Mister Potter and his family what we have learned. I'm going to have authorization from Fudge to take Sirius to St. Mungos by that time or I'll have _him_ in one of those cells for obstruction of justice. I think seeing such a familiar face will be good for Sirius when he gets out. Also, please make sure that Mister Potter and the others involved are available for comment if need be."

After she left through the floo, Remus, freshly unsilenced, looked back at Arthur and Augusta with an expression not unlike a fish out of water, "How do I tell Harry?"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"What is the meaning of this Amelia!" Minister Fudge shouted as the woman bullied her way past his secretary and let herself into his office.

"Madame Undersecretary," Amelia said, ignoring Fudge and first addressing the toadlike woman in pink. Delores Umbridge always rubbed her the wrong way, "I must ask you to leave the room so that I can discuss matters of national security with the Minister."

"How dare you!" the fat woman shouted indignantly, "Do you not know who I am?"

"Get OUT Delores!" Fudge shouted over her, he had been forced to endure Amelia Bones for some time now. The woman was simply too righteous for her own good, and didn't understand how politics worked or how the game was played. But one thing she had never done was claim that something pertained to _national security_. She was simply too honest to overplay a situation's gravity, which meant he was beginning to sweat as he tried to figure out what she could mean.

"But minister?"

"I said OUT, tell Felicity that no one else is allowed in here until I say." He glared at Amelia as he finished, "No matter _how_ persistent they might be."

Once Delores had closed the door behind her, Amelia swished her wand at it, activating the stronger security and privacy wards on the minister's office, "What is this about Amelia?"

"Bear with me minister," She said as she took a seat in front of him, "earlier this week I was asked some interesting questions about Sirius Black from the Potter family. These questions were brought on by information they took from the wills of James and Lily Potter." When Fudge made to protest that the wills were sealed she sidetracked, "There were copies in Gringotts, and we can't legally stop Heir Potter from opening those. That is not the point."

"Very well, continue."

"Well, when they went over them they discovered that Sirius was named as Harry Potter's godfather. Not only that, but the will said that he had sworn the oath and everything."

She had to raise a hand to stop the minister from interrupting her again, "They wanted me to look up his trial transcript and see if it came up. Instead, I found that there _was no trial_. There was no transcript anywhere, and no one who was involved in the case can remember it happening. When I questioned Crouch about when the trial had taken place his response was that it simply didn't matter because Black was 'unquestionably guilty'."

"Well we can't just drag Black out of Azkaban because the Boy-Who-Lived wants to dot some i's and cross some t's." Fudge answered, "He's guilty, we all know it. There's no way that he swore a godfather oath."

"That was what I thought until today." Amelia pressed on, "I was still planning to verify it by questioning Black, but was interrupted on my way to Azkaban when Augusta Longbottom used her Wizengamot emergency clearance to floo directly into the auror ready room and drag me back to Potter's home to arrest a death eater."

"Preposterous." Fudge clearly didn't believe his assertion even as he said it, denying bad news was simply in his nature.

"The death eater in question was discovered by Heir Potter and his steward, he took a child hostage to try and escape when he realized he'd been made." Fudge's already paling face turned ghost white, "She is fine, and the death eater was already incapacitated when Auror Shacklebolt and I arrived on the scene but… Minister, the death eater was Peter Pettigrew."

"Amelia you and I both know that that is patently ridiculous."

"That is what I thought at first too, but I saw him with my own eyes. Dark Mark and all." At the minister's incredulous expression, she pulled out a copy of the interrogation transcript, "I interrogated Pettigrew on the scene, I already had veritaserum because Madame Longbottom stopped me while I was on my way to perform a questioning anyways. One that this transcript renders irrelevant."

"Amelia what kind of joke are you pulling here?"

"Minister, read the damn transcript!"

"Fine! If you insist!" He retorted as he took the transcript and began reading… probably the source material for every nightmare he would ever have ever again.

The interrogation started with simple questions that quickly evolved into a first hand account of the fall of You-Know-Who!

What is your name? _Peter Ignatious Pettigrew. _

Are you a death eater? _Yes. _

Were you the secret keeper for the Potters? _Yes_.

Why did everyone think that it was Sirius Black? _That was Sirius' idea. He would be a decoy because the Dark Lord's forces would assume him to be the keeper._

As specifically as possible, when did your role as the Potter's secret keeper end? _Around nine o'clock p.m. on the thirty-first of October, nineteen eighty-one._

"I confess to not knowing all auror protocols," Fudge said as he looked up momentarily, "but was that question worded to confirm without doubt that he was the keeper when they were attacked?"

At the DMLE Head's nod he continued.

Did you willingly lead the wizard known as Voldemort to the Potter's home? _Yes. _

Why? _I serve the dark lord, I was afraid he would kill me if I refused, and I was to have part of the Potter fortune. _

What happened when Sirius Black confronted you after the incident at Godric's Hollow on the previously mentioned Halloween? How did the incident start, and how did you react? _He confronted me in the street, he knew I was the traitor. He shouted at me that I had betrayed James and Lily, and I cast a blasting hex at the road. I killed most of the muggle witnesses and cut off my finger, then transformed and escaped into a sewer._

What do you mean 'Transformed'? _I am an animagus, I turn into a brown rat._

Alright, now I want specifics. Beginning with the moment you and the wizard known as Voldemort appeared on the sidewalk at Godric's Hollow that night, walk me through what happened until you escaped from Black as a rat. _The Dark Lord did not speak as we proceeded to the house after apparating… _

When the minister began turning as green as his favorite bowler hat, Amelia interrupted him, "Minister, Pettigrew has confessed to committing every crime Sirius is illegally in prison for, as well as framing him for those crimes."

"Yes, we need to get trials lined up, one for Pettigrew and a retrial for Sirius.'"

"No sir," Amelia interrupted, "there would be no _re_trial as Black has clearly never had one at all."

"Er, right. Two trials then…"

"Wrong again, Sirius needs to simply be _released_ and his innocence _announced_." Amelia stood up and leaned over the desk to close the distance with the minister, "The law only lets us detain someone without charges for seven days, and detainment in Azkaban without trial can be for no more than ninety, in the low-security wing _only_, and that is assuming we are following the more lenient emergency laws from ten years ago. Every day Sirius Black has been in Azkaban after that was illegal kidnapping perpetrated by the Ministry."

"I… what do we do? He'll have all our jobs over this!"

"Now you understand why I felt this needed to stay between us to start. Handled wrong this could end the Ministry. But it won't hit _you _like that if we do everything in our power to get Sirius settled and back on his feet." Amelia hated having to placate the man's cowardly nature, but at least it wasn't hard this time, "The only major officials that are still in office from that time that had a hand in this travesty are Crouch and Dumbledore, if he goes after anyone it should be them. You can start that goodwill by signing me authorization to relocate him to St. Mungos immediately after we are done talking. Though I don't think it will be necessary, if he _is_ needed at Pettigrew's trial we can't have him _looking_ like he's been in Azkaban for a decade. Let Sirius Black recover for a week and we hold the trial first thing next Saturday."

Fudge was already drafting the legal waivers needed to get the man moved before she had even finished the suggestion.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Sirius Black heard footsteps echoing through the corridor of the prison and resumed his human form. He had been harassed by the guards relatively recently, so he didn't think they were coming for him again. But it never hurt to be careful with the only thing keeping him even remotely sane.

In his mind, that caution was rewarded when he saw a pair of eyes look into his cell before unlocking and opening the door. Who walked in almost caused the last bit of his resolve to break. It wasn't often that they did this, but it was always painful. Even then, the guards had never been that cruel, they'd never taken _his _form with polyjuice before.

"You know he's sick, don't you Langley?" Sirius did his best not to laugh, "Better hope the polyjuice kills it." _Don't laugh_, "I know Ami doesn't care Tripp, ten years in here told me that, so that's just a waste of contraband. I got you right, ya? Who's who?" _Don't laugh, don't laugh. You won't be able to stop!_

Amelia Bones was dumbfounded, "Why do you think that we are Aurors Langley and Tripp?"

"Yeah right," the insane looking man released a little chuckle, as he wheezed out his next taunt, "next you'll tell me it's finally time for my trial or something? Not falling for it."

_So he really didn't get one then, _Amelia thought as she answered, "It's really us."

"Padfoot, we found him." Remus stopped in the middle of the room, waiting for his friend to react, "We found Wormtail, we know the truth."

_Padfoot?_ There was no way he would tell the aurors his Marauder name, _no way_.

"Moony?" Sirius' voice was weak, barely above a whisper.

"It's me Padfoot. It's Moony. Wormtail is in custody, it's over." Remus knelt down so that Sirius could see his face more clearly, but the other man grabbed him into a hug as he began laughing and sobbing at the same time.

"We're getting you out of here Padfoot. To St. Mungos"

"H-Harry?" Sirius choked out.

"He's fine Padfoot. If you listen to the healers you should be able to see him before he goes back to Hogwarts. It's Christmas break right now."

"Harry…" Sirius sighed once more before he passed out from shock.

"I will be opening an investigation into Langley and Tripp as soon as this all is taken care of." Amelia promised as she cast a spell to levitate the unconscious Sirius out of the prison, "If you can cast a patronus, take your wand back and do so. Not having to deal with the dementors on the way out will be a good start."


	26. Chapter 25: Revelations Magic and Muggle

**AN: The next chapter is the last in the Christmas Break section. Unfortunately, work and the incoming holiday season has left me slow to keep up with my writing. I still want to stay ahead of myself, so after _next_ week there will be a brief hiatus. In all though, I plan to have Year 1 finished by the end of January.**

Christmas Break Part VI: Revelations Both Magical and Muggle

**Friday, December 27th, two hours after Peter Pettigrew was revealed**

"Those three are going to break their necks!" Hermione hissed at Neville as she looked back to the pots they were setting up.

"Why do you think _I'm _not up there. Keep me on the ground, thanks." Neville laughed as he looked over the things Harry and Hermione had received for their greenhouses. They had sent him a list, but had neglected to mention just how _much _there was for a first time greenhouse.

"He'll be down soon Hermione. Give them a chance to get everything off their minds for a while. _Particularly _Harry and Ronald." Petunia gently chided as she began reading about the automatic irrigation system she'd ordered from a gardening center that Angela's family ran.

"Some of these are a little gross Hermione." Parvati commented as she looked at some of the saplings, "This one has ooze or something on the leaves…"

"That one is supposed to Parv." Her sister said from where she was making and organizing labels, "You jar the leaves in the ooze and they keep a long time."

"EW!" the Gryffindor twin shrieked as she backed away from the offending plant.

There was a clearing behind the greenhouse they were setting up first, and that was where the other adults, as well as Tina, were watching those in the air. After Remus had explained what had been learned about Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew the friends had decided to go flying to help Ron and Harry calm down. Those who didn't like to fly had offered to help Neville and Hermione with getting the planting started.

"Petunia recorded a few dozen snippets on those omnioculars that I've watched dozens of times," Vernon explained to Timothy and Angela as they marveled at Harry's skill, "but to see him actually flying that thing is something else."

"It's alright sweetie," Angela whispered into Tina's ear when she squeaked in fear at one of Harry's steeper dives, "Madam Longbottom and Mrs. Smith will catch him if he falls."

Tina's trepidation at Harry's aerial acrobatics meant no one was paying attention to Ron as he descended to hover beside them, "Tina? Do you wanna try flying?" He asked as he touched down, "You could hop on behind me if your parents say it's okay."

Tina only thought about it for a moment before looking up to her parents with resolve. She knew that Hermione _hated_ flying, so this was something she could learn to be better than her at. With askance clear in his daughter's eyes, Timothy caved quickly, "Alright, but none of those crazy stunts like you were pulling with Harry young man."

"Yes sir." Ron answered as he moved forward on his broom so that Tina could hop on behind him, "Hang on tight." He said as he kicked off.

At first, Tina thought she would lose her breakfast as her stomach dropped when Ron began ascending. But once he had leveled off and asked if she was alright she finally opened her eyes. The sun was still hanging fairly high in the sky, which meant that she could see far in all directions. The ocean extended off into the distance on one side, and on the other she could see the mainland but no discernable towns, just forests and hills along the coast. Overall, it was probably the most beautiful thing the young girl had ever seen. More magical than Diagon Alley, even.

"I'm great." She answered. As she gripped Ron tighter, she felt him relax a little under her and realized he'd been worried about her until now, "I'm fine now, promise. It's beautiful up here."

Ron sighed in relief as he began making a relatively leisurely circuit over the island while the girl behind him pointed out various interesting things below, including a flock of owls that took flight when they passed and a small herd of deer that looked up when they were near but didn't run. He had noticed how she still shivered every now and then when they were on the ground, and was worried that she was pretending to be alright for everyone else. Ginny was the same way, she didn't want her brothers to think she was scared, but they always knew. Tina seemed like a strong girl, she _did_ calm down pretty fast after he got her away from Scab-_Pettigrew_… but that didn't mean she didn't need something fun to replace the bad.

Seeing Ron lifting off the ground with Tina on his broom gave Dudley the idea to do something similar, and his mum was all too happy to try flying with him. Not to be left out, Harry descended as well and offered to see if maybe they could beat Hermione's fear of flying some more if she wasn't having to worry about her magic going out of control while she's trying to stay on the broom.

"No thank you, Harry." She huffed in answer, "After all those crazy stunts you were pulling? No way!"

"Can I go?" Parvati asked, "I'm not really a dirt and plants person."

"Sure," Harry shrugged after a final look a Hermione, "hop on."

Once they were in the air Harry asked, "You aren't going to ask me to go slow and not mess up your hair or something are you?"

"Nope," She grinned behind him, "but I might ask you to do one of those dives Hermione was complaining about before we go back."

Hermione looked up again when she heard her friend scream from the back of Harry's broomstick. She frowned when she saw the two of them pulling out of a dive that had her parents running and yelling at him not to be so reckless. Hermione wasn't sure where the vindication she felt was coming from. She knew that Harry shouldn't be doing that, but she also knew that he was totally in control. Strangely though, it was _Parvati _she felt vindicated against.

"Next time I'll say yes." She muttered under her breath as Harry descended to join them in setting up the greenhouses. Padma heard her and silently chuckled.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

When Sirius Black next awoke he found himself magically stuck to a bed. He couldn't move any part of his body besides his head, so he slowly surveyed the room to find out what delusion he'd found himself in. The last thing he remembered was an auror polyjuiced as Moony talking about Harry and Wormtail…

"I know you're awake," a soft, familiar voice came from near the foot of the bed, "I remember your tricks."

"Andi?" His voice croaked out, "Is this real?"

At his cousin's nod he continued, "Moony? He was really there?"

"Yes Sirius, he's telling Harry about the healers' orders for you before he comes back."

"Harry?" Sirius' became agitated as he fought against the sticking charms, "Please let me see Harry, he needs to know!"

Andromeda activated the ward that summoned a healer as she moved closer to Sirius to keep him still, "He's fine Sirius. Harry is spending time with his friends for Christmas. Calm down, cousin."

"He has to know! It was Wormtail!"

"We know. We caught him Sirius. Harry and Remus caught him." Andromeda felt tears building up as she tried to soothe the wreck that her favorite cousin had become. Sirius was once a prankster full of life, now he looked like a man three times his age and haunted by enough ghosts for a dozen lifetimes.

"Harry?" The worry Sirius clearly felt gave him a moment of lucidity, but his breathing was becoming even more irregular as he hungrily absorbed any information he could about his godson.

"Harry's familiar found the rat, Pettigrew. Remus subdued him. He can't hurt Harry now, Sirius. I promise."

The healers made it into the room as Andromeda began to panic. Sirius was sobbing uncontrollably as he repeatedly begged an absent Harry, James, and Lily Potter for forgiveness. The nurse on staff politely escorted the shaken woman from the room as the healers lowered Sirius into a deep sleep. Never had Andromeda Tonks been more sure of her decision _not_ to go into mind healing than that moment.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**Saturday, December 28th**

"Thank you again Ronald." Petunia's voice drew him out of the daze he'd fallen into looking at his new wand after he'd stopped practicing spells with it.

"Thank _you_ ma'am." He replied, holding up his new willow and unicorn hair wand as he followed her eyes over to where Tina was _still_ looking for her own wand, "This wand is amazing."

"Yes, well. I had already arranged this as your Christmas gift from Harry and Dudley." Ron wasn't sure what to say to that, his parents hadn't let on at all, and she continued, "So, before your family left the country I asked your father if we could get you something else for saving Christina. I was thinking we could get you a new pet while we were here if you wanted? Maybe an owl? Dudley told me that your family uses an owl that is awfully old, and would appreciate a break. We have some other things to take care of in the Alley anyways, in particular there is a nursery owner that Harry needs to thank, so you could pick something out while we do that."

Ron thought about it for a moment before he got a shiver up his spine again. Yesterday, after having time to think critically, he'd remembered that Ginny yelled at him a lot last summer for leaving Scabbers in the bathroom whenever he showered ahead of her, except he didn't remember leaving the rat there because he didn't take Scabbers into the _bathroom_ with him… That had made the adults as furious as anything Pettigrew had confessed to, "Thanks ma'am, that's really awesome but… Would you mind letting me wait until later? Maybe after the summer? I don't think I could-"

"Say no more, I understand." She interrupted, "Whenever you are ready. Or if there is something else you would like instead, just to show how thankful we all are. It isn't just me. Her parents would be here telling you this as well if Mister Olivander would just find Tina's wand already."

"My girl, this is most vexing." Garrick Ollivander announced as he put yet another wand away and turned to look for more candidates. The wandmaker had pulled out what would become Ron's wand the moment the group had walked through the door, but that was now forty-five minutes ago and Tina was still searching for a wand that didn't blow something up the first time she waved it. If nothing else it was at least impressive that every single failed match had elicited roughly the same reaction.

"Hmm." Ollivander mused as he examined the disgusted look the young witch in front of him expressed at the minor destruction she'd caused, "Perhaps something unorthodox? My girl, how often do you have bouts of accidental magic? Particularly in the last six months."

"I haven't, I don't think. Uncle Moony has been teaching me wandless magic, and I didn't really do weird stuff before then. Did I mum?"

"Not for a long time dear. Not since you were three or four." Her mother answered, wondering why it mattered.

"Astounding, most astounding." Ollivander stated, "Such little accidental magic is rare for muggleborn unless there are extenuating circumstances like with Misters Dursley and Potter. Wandless ability even more so. Perhaps you will surprise me like they did."

He went to a corner of his work space and returned with several new boxes, "Try these, they are of a less common wood."

Tina picked them up one by one, and on the second to last she gasped when her hands clasped the handle. As she lifted the wand, the windows and doors rattled loudly.

"This one." She announced happily as she pointed with it, "_Lumos_."

The wand emimited a gentle light, as expected. But the people around her gasped in shock. The light was green!

Ollivander clapped lightly as he explained the wand, "Eleven and three-quarters elm wood, with a core of unicorn hair from a rather stubborn mare that refused to give more than a single stand. Such is usually only the case for stallions, and even then it is rather rare, so I was shocked when a female exhibited that behaviour."

Tina looked at the rich brown wand in her hands with a sense of trepidation. She had heard Harry and the others talking about their wands like extensions of their arms, but… this wasn't what she expected at all. When she had cast the light spell through her wand it felt really strange. Rather than simply _making _her magic act, the wand had stepped into the middle and interfered. Yes the light was green for the first time, and she would try to figure out how the wand did that, but she didn't like that the _wand_ did that.

"Malfoy's father's wand is elm." Ron said, drawing confused looks from his friends, "Uh, I only say that 'cause Malfoy thinks elm can only be used by _super_ purebloods or something and brags about it if people's wands ever come up. I just thought it was interesting since Tina is muggleborn."

"Elm is a most dextrous and artistic wood that lends itself to impressive and evolved spellcasting. It is the kind of wood that usually needs pre-existing skill, which is the source of the myth that only purebloods are chosen by elm," Ollivander continued explaining the merits of the wand, "and the stubbornness of the unicorn to only donate the single hair implies trust that I would not waste it. If you return the trust the wand has shown in _you_, you both will be exceptional. I believe this wand will be an instrument for spreading your energy. You saw how the whole building was affected, rather than small objects like with failed bonds?"

Tina looked at the length of wood with a new hope after he was finished. She had seen the others casting wandless magic recently, and she was faster and more precise than them. But no matter how hard she tried she hadn't been able to affect more than one thing at a time with wandless magic once she'd gotten good at using it. When it was still mostly accidental she had been capable; unfortunately with control had come limitation. Mister Ollivander was saying that the wand could help her overcome that, but was it worth the feeling that it wasn't _her_?

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**Tuesday, December 31st**

"How can this 'Harrods' place possibly be more amazing than all the shops at the mall?" Parvati asked as she got off the underground muggle train with Hermione and her family. Padma was behind her reading a little 'print-out' about the place.

"It's the largest store in the world." Hermione answered, "All the stores in a mall are different, and have different kinds of things. But Harrods has _everything_ all together, and the best brands of everything as well."

"The building is _seven floors_!" Padma announced, shocked as she came to that factoid in her reading. There were several tall buildings in Muggle London, but she was under the impression that most of them had multiple businesses or offices of some sort in them, "All for one store! There's even a whole floor pretty much dedicated to technology! That's so exciting!"

Padma had been absolutely amazed at what could be done with technology. After returning to the Grangers home from Potter Isle, she quizzed her friend and host about all of the strange devices she found. Light bulbs she was familiar with, but to learn that the same "electricity" that makes those work also powered things as diverse as phones, televisions, and internal temperature control was mind blowing. It was as amazing as magic, and as far as Padma knew there was no magical analogue to "batteries" at all.

But her heart had been officially stolen when Hermione's father showed them the computer he had gotten recently. He revealed that the Grangers' dental practice was almost done copying their records onto computers for ease of access, and he was loving it. Mister Granger further explained that soon there would be a "network" of computers that would let him access research in his field from home and Padma was sold. She would give up a _lot_ of magic in her life to have an entire library of new, relevant content sitting on her desk every day!

_If muggles were able to access information this easily it was no wonder that Hermione was so smart_, Padma thought to herself.

Parvati, on the other hand, had walked through every clothing store in the shopping mall they visited on Saturday with eyes wide open. Now, two days later, she was preparing to look at every article of clothing in this "Harrods" next. Hermione had gotten her a subscription to a muggle fashion magazine for Christmas and she was instantly in love. She had already picked a couple outfits from it that she was going to get her daddy to order, but she had also found some things in the stores. That being said, there could only be _so _much variety without magic to assist… could there? After all, Hermione had told her that there was more than one mall within driving distance; and the one they had visited was larger than the main stretch of Diagon Alley!

As it turned out, there _could _be that much variety. The Harrods superstore had a larger space dedicated to just muggle _swimwear_ than any of the stores they had seen at the mall had floor area, _period_. Less than five minutes into the store, Padma was forced to pull her aside and get her to control her breathing, lest she release accidental magic.

"_There were just so many interesting things!_" She had retorted to her more responsible twin. In addition to a greater variety of clothing, muggles accessorized in more interesting ways than magicals did. Until now Parvati had only known a smallish selection of muggle clothes that she now realized were rather simple. This was a whole new world of fashion!

_With these kinds of awesome styles being common it's no wonder that Hermione thinks most magical people look rediculous when they go into the muggle world_, Parvati mused.

After Parvati and Hermione both began to show frustration at Parvati's increasingly large pile of "maybe's," Emma offered to hold what the two had chosen for themselves and stay with her while Hermione and Padma went with Daniel to the technology department, which was most of a floor. They would meet on the level with the bookstore, as there was a restaurant there.

Padma had to constantly remind herself to blink and breathe as she walked with Hermione and goggled at the interesting and exotic machines on display. More than once she wished that she'd been allowed to bring her wand with her; it would have been helpful to know which of these things would work around magic and which wouldn't. As it was, she settled for a "look but do not touch" approach. Anything she actually tried out for herself she was sure she would end up purchasing so she fought to remove the temptation while still satisfying her curiosity, though she still ended up with a few "gadgets" like a wand-sized flameless torch that was brighter than any _Lumos_ she could cast.

The bookstore was a different story. Padma had absolutely loved the mystery novels that Hermione had lent her at school, and she took this opportunity to follow her friend's suggestions into other series and genres. The magical world didn't have much in the way of fiction for any age group except young children, so the world of young adult fiction was brand new to her.

When the trio made their way to the restaurant laden with a staggering weight of books, they found Parvati sitting with Emma Granger suspiciously absent any bags to show for all the clothes that had been taken into the changing room. Hermione and Padma were worried, but it was up to Daniel to voice what they were all wondering.

"I would have expected a mountain of bags over here with you two." He said, not-quite-asking whether they were going to have to make a stop on the way down.

"Oh don't worry," Emma replied with a conspiratorial smile, "We can pick up our bags on the ground floor when we are done."

Daniel paled. That was something that he'd _heard_ was an available service… but you had to buy quite a bit of clothing for that to be on offer. Did this girl buy a new wardrobe or something? The twins father had given them about _seven thousand pounds_ each as "spending money," so it was possible.

"Parvati, this is too much even for you!" Padma admonished her twin when the valet brought out a rolling trolley with dozens of bags.

"It's not _all_ for me," Parvati shot back, "I got you some stuff too!"

"She also helped me pick some things out for myself and Hermione." Emma added before turning to her husband with a joking grin on her face, "Can we keep her?"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**Wednesday, January 1st**

"This muggle watering system is amazing Mrs. Dursley." Neville said as he observed the series of tubes and hoses that watered the entire greenhouse, or only sections of it if required, all from one location. "If this works as well as it looks then I might need to get one for back home. My family's house elves aren't exactly fond of my greenhouses because some of the plants don't like them."

"Oh dear." Petunia answered, bemused, as she wondered what kind of plants that could 'not like' people he was referring to, "And thank you. Angela's family owns a small nursery as well as a gardening center. It came from there."

"I'm still impressed that we got everything that needs to be potted and planted." Hermione offered, "I was as excited as Harry to start this and hopefully brew some potions with our own, home grown ingredients this summer. But seeing all those crates on Christmas day was still a shock."

"I'll bring you guys some stuff from my own greenhouse at some point." Neville offered, "I have some fanged geraniums that I think are used in potions."

"They are," Harry confirmed, "they go in potions that you rub on that work under the skin like muscle relaxers, and that would be awesome. Uncle Moony said they are hard to buy around here."

"Yeah," the brown haired boy nodded, "there's a Ministry ban on selling sentient or semi-sentient plants in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade anymore cause apparently muggleborn were taking them home and risking the Statute of Secrecy."

Petunia frowned as she listened, that didn't sound like the kind of mistake a parent would let their child make… but she had to admit that there are certainly some less-than-stellar parents out there.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Why didn't you come to me about this sooner Hagrid?" The Headmaster pinched his nose as he tried to think of what he could do with this information.

"M'sorry sir," the large man's face was low as he answered, "thought I should find what was wrong a'fore I got ya."

"You say the centaurs had been hiding this?"

"Well, not s'much. They don' like when wizards use unicorn parts 'cept the hairs." Hagrid answered, quick to defend his friends in the forest, "They jus' keepin' the bodies from being abused more. I only knew sommat was wrong in the Fores' cause I kep' seein' unicorn blood on the trails."

"So, only now that you stumble upon one of the bodies before they remove it, the centaurs informed you that there is something in the Forbidden Forest that is _hunting_ _unicorns _for their blood?" Dumbledore was exceptionally practiced at keeping his emotions in check, likely the only reason he wasn't yelling at his groundskeeper.

"S'right. Firenze said it's been there for a couple months. 'Evil stalks these woods' he said."

"Those are the exact words he used?" Albus locked Hagrid's eyes, demanding a truth that he got when the giant man solemnly nodded his head.

They both knew the gravity of Firenze choosing that word to describe the entity in the Forest. The centaur language didn't have words for "good" or "evil," they were not the type to use such labels. For a centaur to call a being "evil" meant that it was fundamentally outside the natural order.

While Hagrid wondered what the entity could be as he left the headmaster's office, Dumbledore was left to contemplate just how powerful Voldemort had become via the effects of the unicorn blood. _Especially if he had been doing this for months_. Albus shuddered to imagine what that would ultimately do to the soul of whoever Voldemort was currently possessing to exact his will on the world.

At first, he had been loathe to lay blame at one of the staff but he wasn't so sure anymore, Quirinus was beginning to act especially suspect. First though, Albus would ensure there wasn't a new transient staying in Hogsmeade who had taken a recent and unexplained downturn (upturn?) in his or her health. After all, Albus' suspicions of Quirinus likely stemmed from his relative isolation in the castle, and determining the truth without alerting the professor to his suspicions would take time. No, he needed to widen his search first, eliminate the more likely possibilities.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**Thursday, January 2nd**

"Movies" and "Television" were Ronald Weasley's absolute favorite things about the muggle world. While the Dursleys home was too small to accommodate three extra boys sleeping (Justin Finch-Fletchley had joined them on Monday), they still spent time there during the week when they were too tired to fly or explore the forest at Potter Isle. During those times, Harry and Dudley had introduced Ron and Neville to some of their favorite shows. Neither of them had been present for Dudley's description of television shows during the opening feast, so the final understanding that muggles had invented a way to record what amounted to entire _plays_ and send them into people's homes was staggering!

When Ron and Neville had drawn the comparison to live theatre, Petunia expressed her own wish to go to a play herself. The men in her family weren't big on theatre that didn't include large screens and special effects, but they had to begrudgingly agree that showing their friends a _non magical _play would be a good experience… but only if the girls had to suffer too. Hermione and the Patils were all too excited for the opportunity, shattering Harry and Dudley's hope that they could get out of it, and after coordinating with the others' parents the event had been planned for the night before they returned to Hogwarts.

On this particular evening the cousins were making good on their promise to Ron to explain who "Crocodile Dundee" is, and he couldn't agree more with their assessment of Charlie. They watched both "Crocodile Dundee" as well as its sequel, while Ron went from amazed that a muggle could remind him so much of his brother to stupefied at the realization that the main character's foolish bumbling around in "society" was an _awful _lot like the way his father behaved around muggles… That was not a pleasant thought, basically everyone in the story that didn't already know him thought Dundee was a boob. If it weren't for his special skills he sort of _would_ be, and that was way to close an analogue to magic for Ron's sensibilities.

One thing was for sure, Ronald Weasley wasn't going to be reading any more _Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle_ comics. Muggles were anything but mad, they were brilliant!

"I see what you mean," Ron had said in the intermission between the two films, "but I kinda think he's more of a muggle Hagrid than Charlie. At least Charlie still thinks dragons are dangerous."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Harry gazed longingly at his uncle's automobile as the group made their way from Number 4 to the Polkiss's home, which they were using as a landing point for their Potter Isle portkey, after they finished their movie night.

"The healers have said good things." Petunia whispered in his ear to get him to keep moving, "They think he'll be stable enough to try a visit on Saturday."

Harry had been itching to visit Sirius since Moony had confirmed that the man was safely recovering in St. Mungos, but the healers had been worried that Harry would trigger a hysterical reaction if he were to visit. When Sirius had first been committed just the mention of Harry's name had been enough for the man to hyperventilate and suffer vertigo and blackouts. Aunt Andi had explained that Sirius spending the last ten years thinking of just about nothing other than seeing Harry again had damaged his mind slightly. _Thankfully_, there was a silver lining in the form of Sirius' animagus ability, which he had miraculously kept hidden from the guards during his stint in the prison. While his body was, without question, weakened tremendously by his stay in Azkaban; the Dementors had not destroyed his mind as thoroughly as a decade among them normally would have, but he still had a long road to recovery. At least he was able to answer questions when asked without losing his composure, as long as his godson wasn't brought up.

"I hope he gets better soon." Harry responded quietly before he hurried to catch up with the others.


	27. Chapter 26: Welcome Home

**AN: A combination of holiday nonsense and my inability to keep myself from adding plot elements (like Tina's magic) has made me push back posting the next chapters. I will try to do sort of what I did for Christmas Break, where I start posting a story arc once I've finished it. I enjoyed writing those chapters more than most of the previous ones and I think it's because of the altered format. I still think I can finish the book (year I) by the end of January. I'm currently expecting a total of 2 more "story arcs" in Book I.**

Welcome Home

Harry fought to keep his nerves under control as he and Aunt Petunia prepared to floo to St. Mungos. Dudley had introduced Ron and Neville to Mario the night before, Justin had only been able to stay for a couple nights before his parents took him home to go overseas on a short trip, and therefore none of them were here at Potter Isle. Surprisingly it was Neville who had proved to be the best at it, though he played it off as panic instincts since he insisted he had no idea what he was doing.

"Don't worry Harry. I'm sure everything will be fine. Mrs. Tonks said that he was recovering fairly well." Temperance Smith offered support to the conflicted boy with a slight amount of hesitation.

It had been pressed on her during the last two weeks in particular that Harry and the others were just normal people that didn't need fawning or special treatment. It was likely that she would never really be able to separate Andromeda Tonks from her memory of her role model, but her ability to treat Harry Potter as a normal boy and not the Boy-Who-Lived also took constant hits through the Christmas season as she watched him repeatedly outperform her expectations for a boy his age. Wandless magic, incredible flying, a great memory for potions, and a parselmouth on top of all that? The child was destined to be larger-than-life, regardless of what he wanted.

"Thank you, you're right." Harry replied, "That's not the only thing though…"

Harry had been leery of this for a while, he had never been able to fully conquer his strange, innate fear of flashing green lights. He sometimes had nightmares with flashing green and a creepy laugh, and had been having them more often since going to Hogwarts, maybe it was finally time to ask a magical adult about it? His aunt had always assumed that it was a natural, if unfortunate, side effect of whatever happened the night his parents died.

"Harry?" Petunia looked at him worriedly, and he remembered that he hadn't told her how the green fire of the floo creeped him out before. He had never been in a position to use the one at the Leaky Cauldron, and whenever they ate there they made sure to be far away from the hearth to keep from being disturbed. This had made it easy to hide his discomfort from his family.

"Sorry." Harry said before he briefly explained his problem to his aunt. She was none too pleased to learn that he hadn't mentioned his nightmares' increased frequency, but was heartbroken to hear about his panicked reaction to the floo when he was surprised by one at the beginning of term. Petunia had an inkling of why Harry's nightmares included such a specific stimulus, thankfully her nephew hadn't thought to ask either Remus or one of his teachers more about Voldemort and the war. _She_ had, though, she knew that the lethal spell which Voldemort prefered was a very distinctive green. It shattered her heart to know that Harry had nightmares of that, even when she had thought it was still rather infrequent.

"Maybe Remus has another way to get there?" She offered her nephew a lifeline, "I could go through first and ask him?"

"No, no." Harry shook his head resolutely, "I need to do this, it's normal for wizards, right? Let me watch you, and I'll be right behind you."

"If you're sure," Petunia frowned, then repeated Remus' instruction to her about floo safety from when they'd first had the ones on Potter Isle installed, "I'll go through, wait at least five seconds for the fire to reset before throwing in your own powder. Don't take too long or I'll get worried and probably try to come back to check on you. Criss-crossing in the floo can be rough apparently."

Harry hesitated with the powder in his hand after his aunt stepped through the hearth, "Keep walking when you go through." Mrs. Smith said, giving him a wink and a nod toward the fire.

"Keep walking" wasn't nearly enough advice, or maybe he just had bad luck and the hearth malfunctioned on him. Harry rocketed out of the other side of the floo with much more momentum than he had had upon entering. His first step sent him tumbling forwards, knocking over a wizard in green robes as he tried to keep from hitting the floor face-first.

"Watch out bo- by Merlin, you're Harry Potter." The man had begun his statement with ire in his voice, but thankfully had lowered his volume rather than raise it when he recognized who had knocked him down.

"I'm terribly sorry, sir." Harry responded quickly, "It was my first time using the floo."

"Harry? Are you alright?" Harry heard his aunt call to him and turned to face her, though he couldn't see anything except an auburn-topped blur since his glasses had been knocked off his face.

"Yes, I think I came through too fast or something. Do you see my glasses?"

"Oh dear," the man in green said as he stood up, "I appear to have landed on them. Let me fix these for you, _Oculus Repairo_."

Harry thanked the man after receiving his fixed spectacles, and his aunt made to take him to the reception desk when the wizard Harry had collided with offered to help them find where they were going.

"Healer Fawley, at your service Mister Potter, Ma'am." The wizard in green introduced himself. Now that Harry had a chance to get a good look at the man he could see a crest on the shoulders and breast of his robe that resembled a more 'mystical' version of a Caduceus, except it had vines of ivy circling the staff instead of snakes.

Healer Fawley left the pair at a corner near the reception desk and returned momentarily with the correct ward and room number for "Pads Foote," which, unknown to him, was the alias that Sirius had been checked in under; though he was curious as to why Harry Potter would know a patient that warranted an auror guard. Armed with directions to the lifts, Harry and Petunia made their way to the secure ward where the two marauders were waiting for them.

Finding the specific room once they were on the ward wasn't hard at all. There was a pair of aurors standing outside the room keeping watch. The two red robed men tensed as Harry and Petunia approached, but when one of them recognized Harry they relaxed a little.

"Mister Potter, ma'am," The closer man said, bowing his head slightly to Harry as he did, "I am Auror Bragden, this is my partner Auror Kleck, we were told you would be coming today. Mister Lupin is already inside with the healers. Please let us check you for glamours and we'll let you through."

Harry hesitated once more at the door to the room. Worried once more that he was going to make things worse for his uncle. He didn't know too much about psychology or brain medicine, but he did know that little triggers could cause people to go all the way off the deep end sometimes. Steeling himself with the knowledge that the auror had said "healers," meaning more than one, Harry opened the door and preceded his aunt into the room.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Draco! Where are you!" Lucius Malfoy shouted as soon as he stepped out of the floo at Malfoy Manor.

The Lord Malfoy had suffered a disastrous morning, having just left a mandatory session of the wizengamot that had been called with only one day of notice. Lucius had assumed that Cornelius had caved to public pressure and was calling the werewolf to task for usurping such a prestigious position as Steward of a House, but he was completely wrong. The platinum blonde wizard had only just realized that the session was called for a criminal trial when the defendant was pulled out and his heart stopped in his chest.

_Peter Pettigrew was_ _alive!_ _Not only that, he was a Death Eater!_ Amelia had elected to present Pettigrew to the court sans his left sleeve, so no one in the audience could deny it.

Lucius Malfoy wasn't the only one to begin to protest the man's presence in the chamber, many Dark family heads had escaped conviction on _Imperius_ charges that Pettigrew could possibly refute under veritaserum if he was allowed to be questioned in an open forum of the Wizengamot! However, their poorly disguised panic was alleviated when Minister Fudge stated that there was to be _absolutely _no questioning of the suspect beyond the details of his specific charges. Every other "Imperius victim" among the dark families was placated as Amelia Bones began to read those charges and present evidence, except Malfoy. Knowing that he wasn't at risk of prison himself, Lucius tuned out the proceedings and began to strategize.

If it was true that Peter Pettigrew was the one who betrayed the Potters, and was _also_ the one who blew up that street and killed those muggles then how long would it take for Sirius Black to be released from Azkaban? Lucius had been told that the man was disinherited, but now he couldn't afford to assume that he wasn't being lied to. Walburga never really liked him, she had still considered the Malfoys to be "foreigners," so she certainly had it in her to lie to him out of spite. As long as he died in Azkaban, without being able to claim the lordship, Draco would have inherited regardless of whether Sirius had fathered some bastard heir before his imprisonment. Now he needed to know, _was_ Draco the heir Black?

_No, he was not_, according to a smirking Gringotts employee who gleefully explained to Lucius that his son was _third in line_ to inherit; after Sirius Black and his _godson and named heir_ Harry Potter. He had gone straight there after the trial had finished with the painfully obvious conclusion of Peter Pettigrew being sentenced to life in Azkaban, with the added flourish of specifically ordering he be placed in Sirius Black's former cell. _Former_, because the minister had taken it upon himself to remove Black from the prison _a week ago _without informing him!

"Father?" Draco pulled Lucius out of his musing as he entered the parlor, "Is something wrong?"

"Boy, why did you not know that the Slytherin Weasley was to be staying with Harry Potter over the break?" Lucius needed someone meaningful to blame and punish for this, and Potter and Black were out of reach.

"But," Draco paused, flabbergasted, "father, _you_ are the one who said that the Weasleys had booked an international portkey. Why would Potter be out of the country?"

"He _wasn't _you idiot child!" Lucius shouted over his son, "The youngest Weasley boy didn't go with the others! And now, because of that, we stand to potentially lose _EVERYTHING_!"

Draco couldn't imagine how an alliance between _Potter _and _Weasley_ could threaten the power of the Malfoy family, especially not when they had the backing of his mother's much more powerful Black family name as well; and he said as much, "You are the Lord Malfoy, and I am the Heir of Houses Malfoy and Black, father, how could a _Weasley_ possibly touch us?"

Lucius glared at his son, "Sirius Black has been released from Azkaban and exonerated of all charges. I imagine it was only the constant flow of _Malfoy _money into the Ministry's coffers that kept the _Imperius _claims from ten years ago from being called into question. If Black decides to, he could quite literally destroy us now. The marriage contract between your mother and I stipulates that Malfoy money be kept separate from Black money until you inherit both; and there are rules concerning how I can use what your mother brought into the union until then. He could take everything and leave us with only what _I _had prior to the marriage if he so chose. If he did so, my power in the Wizengamot would be crippled."

Lucius waited a moment to make sure the gravity of their situation was impressed upon Draco, "Listen, now more than ever it is imperative that you forge a relationship with the Slytherin Weasley; and through him, Potter. If you can get on Potter's good side, we might be safe from Black's reprisals."

"Yes father." Draco answered immediately. He wouldn't let his father down again, though he still didn't see how the Weasley incident could have been averted by him. The first thing he would do is ask his mother about her cousin Sirius, surely she could tell him something that could be used to get in with Potter and Weasley.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Harry stopped just inside the door, Uncle Moony was standing at the foot of the bed and two green robed men stood to either side of its head with a green robed witch also observing from a corner. Harry took passive note of all those things as his eyes moved to the man lying in the bed. His first impression was that Sirius Black looked like pictures of shell-shocked soldiers he'd seen in history books, the man looked like he was half here and half in another time or place.

"James?" The bedridden man asked in a shaky voice as he examined the face in front of him, particularly the eyes, "No… H-Harry?"

"It's me Uncle Padfoot." Harry answered quietly as he edged towards the bed.

Sirius breathing was short and choppy as Harry made his way to him. When the boy had first walked into the room he thought he was looking at his friend, but the eyes were wrong. Or were they _right_? Harry looked like a little James, but Lily's spirit shone from his emerald green eyes.

"You have your mother's eyes." Sirius said absently as Harry made it to his side.

"I get that a lot." Harry answered with a soft chuckle as he began to tear up.

The three healers in the room watched closely as Harry bent down and embraced Sirius Black in a hug. Sirius, for his part, began to silently cry as he returned the embrace. But he wasn't hyperventilating, nor was he babbling about Pettigrew or the deceased Potters this time. _A good sign._

"I'm so glad you're okay." Sirius whispered as Harry pulled back to sit in a chair the healer beside him conjured. "It was the only thing that kept me going. Knowing you were safe, Dumbledore had you."

"I'm sorry for everything that happened to you Uncle Padfoot." Harry answered, "But I'm fine. Najash found Pettigrew and-"

"Wormtail?" Padfoot interrupted with a shout, his eyes widening in alarm, "It wasn't me! He was-"

"Mister Black, please calm down." One of the healers at his side cast a diagnostic charm as he directed a stern look at Harry while the other looked ready to render the bedridden wizard unconscious at a moment's notice.

"It's okay Uncle Padfoot, I'm okay!" Harry insisted, putting a hand on the older man's chest to keep him from trying to get up. Surprisingly, it worked, Sirius was skin and bones and had no strength to speak of.

"He can't hurt me Uncle Padfoot." Harry said, holding his godfather's manic eyes locked with his own, "I promise. It's okay. He was disguised as my friend's pet, but my familiar found him out."

Harry glanced worriedly at the healers, why didn't Sirius know any of this?

"Do you remember us talking about this a couple days ago Sirius?" Remus asked from the foot of the bed, drawing Harry's attention even as it explained the problem he hadn't understood, "Wormtail may have gotten away that night, but now he's going to trial because Harry and I caught him?"

"I… yeah, I do." Sirius looked dejected as he answered, clearly he _didn't _remember.

"It's alright Padfoot, you'll get better." Harry said, gripping his shoulder tightly in reassurance, "Want to hear about my first Quidditch game? I played seeker and we won."

"Quidditch?" Sirius asked, scrunching his face in confusion as his eyes ran up and down Harry, taking in how tall he was, "How… how long?"

"I'm a first year," Harry answered, smiling as if to try and wash away the pain in the other man's eyes when he realized how much he'd missed, "Professor Mcgonagal had to get special permission for me to play, the Slytherins were really mad about it."

For the first time since recovering him from Azkaban, Remus saw a spark of the real Sirius Black shine through with a childish grin at his godson's achievement.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Amos Diggory had spent the morning after the trial of Peter Pettigrew wondering what he was supposed to do now while downing Calming Droughts nearly every half hour. With Sirius Black exonerated, and also Harry Potter's godfather, there was no way that his contesting of Andromeda Tonks' position would go through. Dumbledore had tried to warn him that he didn't have all the information, but he hadn't listened.

"Did the old man know about Black?" Amos mused aloud as he nursed a glass of firewhiskey, "Was he trying to warn me? Or _scare _me?"

No amount of House hatred could keep Amos from feeling sorry for Sirius Black, no innocent man should ever have to endure something so horrible. But none of that meant that Amos was going to back down when it came to the werewolf! It was clear from the talk surrounding the man, as well as the implication that he was always a friend of the Potters just like Remus Lupin, that Sirius Black wasn't going to take his family's traditional stance on Dark Creatures.

Most in the Wizengamot wouldn't have thought that mattered, but Amos had just so happened to be looking at Lord Malfoy during the reading of Pettigrew's confession. It was clear that something was wrong, and a simple check in the Ministry Hall of Records confirmed that Sirius Black was Head of House for the Black Family. What was odd though, is that the parchmentwork to make him Head had been sitting in Limbo until only a few days ago…

_Had someone known and blocked his appointment to keep in in Azkaban? _Amos mused, it couldn't have been Lord Malfoy, he wasn't positioned in the Ministry to affect the Census Records like that… It would have likely have to have been someone in the DMLE or the Minister's Office.

Regardless, if the Black vote couldn't be counted on to direct the dark families against such as Lupin then would he need to work with someone else to usurp that family's traditional role? Amos hated to admit it, but the one most likely to help him that was in a position to do something _was _Lucius Malfoy… The Diggory family wasn't especially rich, nor influential, their seat on the Wizengamot was one of the few permanent ones that was not an Ancient or Noble family; and that was enough to the Malfoys to look down on them as unimportant. That would need to change quickly.

One thing the Diggory family was well known for, though, was their respect for traditions, at least those of a more Light persuasion. If he remembered correctly the current Lady Malfoy was a Black by birth, which meant that an accommodating Wizengamot could rule that Sirius Black's time in Azkaban has rendered him unfit to hold his lordship and have it passed to her. Lucius would jump at such a chance, and all it would take was getting ahead of the problem.

Amos already had it figured out, all it would take was selling Lord Malfoy on the plan. He and Lucius could present a motion to determine the current Lord Black's mental stability; there was precedent for this, though it was usually related to a family head who had stayed in power too long until age had weakened their mind. According to tradition, if the motion carried then Lord Black would have only six months to undergo an evaluation by a mind healer and present himself before the Wizengamot with that healer's findings or his seat would be ordered to be reassigned to a different eligible family member; and during that time, until his mental health is confirmed, his seat's vote would be frozen.

He couldn't even really consider his scheme to be wrong in any real way. Sirius Black would never be able to stand in the chamber only six months after being freed from a decade long stay in Azkaban. Hell, it would be a miracle if the man would _ever_ be truly mentally sound again after what he'd been through. This could almost be seen as a public service; keeping dangerous, crazy ideas born of dementor exposure off the floor.

Amos began composing his letter to Lucius Malfoy as soon as he finished planning out what he would say, however his earlier repeated drinking of potions had left him needing relief. With the missive mostly finished, the man couldn't wait any longer and rushed from the room. While he was gone, his son Cedric entered the study looking for ink, stumbled upon the letter, and began reading it when he saw the name it was addressed to.

"What have I told you about snooping around my personal things, Cedric? That could have been enchanted." Amos said as he reentered the study and caught his son reading his correspondence. Cedric was avid to learn Family business and had often snuck peeks over his father's shoulder while he was working when the boy was younger. While Amos was generally happy to entertain his son's want for learning in the political arena, he preferred to be there to make sure Cedric understood the correct point of view.

"I'm sorry father," Cedric responded automatically, "I was just surprised. When did you begin working with Lord Malfoy?"

"It's about some shake ups in the wizengamot. Unfortunately, the families that I would normally work with are a bit too blinded by the fame of the Boy-Who-Lived to realize that real work needs to be done."

"I know you are having personal issues with some of the people that work for Harry, Mister Potter rather, but I would have thought that our families would still be allies." Cedric was worried about his father. He had started the break in a good mood that died on Christmas Day when the _Prophet_ released an interview from the Potter family that refuted most of the accusations of wrongdoing.

"It isn't about that Cedric," his father chided, "you must understand. It does not matter who he is friends with, a werewolf is a werewolf, and Remus Lupin should not be in a position where he could weaken the Wizengamot's position with werewolves and other dark beasts."

"I met Mister Lupin, he seemed like a fine person." Cedric answered, "You couldn't even tell that he was a werewolf."

"Cedric my son, you just don't understand." Amos said as he shook his head sadly, "The fact that you couldn't tell only makes his presence _more_ subversive. Imagine if _that_ was how the average wizard saw werewolves, instead of as the ravenous beasts that they truly are? They would overrun our society and those like Harry Potter would have us let them, all in the name of pretending that their friend is still fully human."

Cedric sighed, of _course _he didn't want to have to worry about roving packs of werewolves like there had been during the last war, but… "But father, this letter is mostly about Sirius Black and how he shouldn't be allowed to take his seat. What is that about?"

Amos grimaced as he began to answer, "Unsavory business, that, but it needs to be done as well. Sirius Black has spent too long in Azkaban to actually take up the mantle of head, but the family laws for the Blacks will likely place him there by default unless he steps down or the Wizengamot does something. I feel for the man, no one should have to suffer the dementors if they aren't truly guilty; but having been forced to undergo such a trial, there is no doubt that his mind will be too compromised to be allowed to influence law. That being said, I'm not suggesting to Lord Malfoy that he simply be removed, rather that his mental wellness be verified by an unbiased party."

"So it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that if the Blacks voted against you on the werewolf thing you'd lose for sure?" Cedric shot back.

"I assure you my son, that even if that were not a factor I would still be doing this." Amos pinched his nose in frustration, as well as to keep himself from snapping at Cedric for questioning his motives like that, "The only difference is that I believe I would not need the help of a family like the Malfoys if this wasn't forcing me to go against the Potters. Obviously, they will consider any statement against Black to be an attack against them as well since the man is Harry Potter's godfather."

"I suppose you're right, but… Harry and Dudley are-"

"I don't want you to mention any of this to them." His father interrupted him, "The Black family is greater than the Malfoys, if they get wind of this ahead of us going before the Wizengamot with our proposal then they might quash the lesser family before they can speak. That would be a travesty against the legislative process!"

"I-I suppose you are right father, please excuse me." Cedric said, nodding as he backed out of the study. He understood that his father was just doing what was right for the wizarding world, but was it supposed to feel so _bad_?

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"You rolled off your own broom to win the game?" Sirius asked incredulously. His face was falling due to fatigue, but his eyes betrayed the mirth he felt at knowing that his godson got up to hijinks the way he and his father had when they were in school.

"Yeah, it was pretty scary." Harry answered with a laugh, "But 'catch the snitch or die trying,' right?"

Petunia wasn't too impressed by that little tagline. Nor was she convinced that Harry's version of that game, which omitted his broom getting cursed, was _entirely _a fabrication. His description of intentionally falling off his broom to catch that golden ball was a little too believable for someone who was there and saw it happen.

She wasn't about to say anything right now though. Sirius Black looked like death warmed over; but with every minute he spent listening to Harry talk it seemed like the tremendous weight on his soul was lessened, even if only a little. Sirius was clearly getting tired despite it not being noon yet, but he definitely looked more alive than when they had entered.

While she was lost in her personal thoughts, the two had moved on to another topic. Tuning back into their conversation, she realized with some trepidation that Harry was telling Sirius about his familiar. She didn't know whether the man had any prejudices against snakes, or especially against parselmouths; but she _did_ know that if he reacted poorly, even if it was simply due to his emotionally sensitive state, then it would seriously hurt Harry's feelings.

"A snake?" Sirius asked his godson. His voice and face were too weak to properly betray emotion, but it was clear from the way Harry tensed up that he was worried that his new Uncle wouldn't approve.

"He's a kingsnake." Harry answered tentatively, "He's got red and gold and black bands on him. The Slytherins hate him because they say he's the wrong colours. He isn't venomous either."

"You didn't let him eat the rat did you?" Sirius asked with sudden seriousness, earning a horrified look from Harry before he grinned and finished, "Wouldn't want him to get sick!"

Harry laughed and released a breath he'd been holding on instinct. He had interpreted Padfoot's question in entirely the wrong way, thirty minutes with the man had caused him to forget that he was dealing with a Marauder. Unfortunately, they only got to spend a few more minutes together before Harry and Petunia had to leave. Sirius was simply too easily fatigued to spend a lot of time active and conversing, and he was out cold before the aunt and nephew pair had left the room without learning about the most unusual aspects of his godson's familiar.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"What play did we end up getting tickets to?" Petunia asked Emma while the children were busy comparing their formal wear with each other. The magically raised among them were the most interested, while her own two were clearly uncomfortable. Though she noticed that both her boys were at least able to appreciate how pretty their female friends were when they dressed up.

"A Christmas Carol," Emma answered, "the tickets were a little cheaper because it's after Christmas now. I asked the twins if they had heard of Dickens and neither of them had, so I assumed it would be new for everyone not raised in our world."

"That sounds lovely, I've never seen it performed as a live play either." Petunia answered excitedly.

"The Patils asked to join us as well." Emma stated, "I wonder how our shows will compare with magical plays? They don't have television or radio dramas, so I would imagine their theater is of rather high quality to compensate for it being their only performing art."

The group only needed to wait a few more minutes for the elder Patils to join them, entering the back of the Leaky Cauldron from the apparition point. The appearance of the two people stole Emma and Petunia's breath, Sanjay and Lavanya Patil were dressed in traditional formal Indian garb. Lavanya's dress consisted of several long, colourful lengths of fabric draped together that was strikingly beautiful on her darker skin; and Sanjay's outfit made him look like a sultan or something, minus a turban or other headwear. Both of the other mothers were instantly jealous of the pair. Neither could hope to compare to the casual grace and beauty that the Indian woman, and both of their husbands suddenly looked less spiffy in their suits and ties next to Sanjay's expensive looking clothes.

"Hello," Sanjay Patil called out as they approached, "thank you for inviting us to join you for this evening. Lavanya and I have missed our daughters terribly this week, I hope they haven't been to much to handle?"

"Oh it was no trouble at all, and the girls have been lovely." Emma Granger embraced Lavanya affectionately as her husband shook Sanjay's hand. In a lower voice to keep the children from hearing her she continued, "Parvati went on a bit of a shopping spree and bought a lot of clothes. I made sure there was nothing inappropriate, but our culture's standards could be different. You might want to check the things she got over just to be sure you approve."

"Thank you for letting us know, Emma." The other woman responded, her accent mostly camouflaged by time, as she glanced at the dresses her daughters were wearing. They stopped a little above the ankle, were held up by thin shoulder straps, and appeared to be silk. They were matching except that Parvati's was brilliant red and Padma's was a deep blue.

"I will go through them tonight when we get home, though I doubt it will be a problem. If it is muggle clothes then we," she nodded to her husband, "shall try to be lenient. When in casual company we try to be more relaxed, we left India to get away from overly stuffy traditions. Not that Magical Britain is much better."

Emma nodded understanding as she also remembered that the twins were going home tonight so they could have one night with their parents before returning to Hogwarts. She had forgotten to make sure they packed everything since she was so busy making sure that they had sufficient transportation to the theatre and restaurant afterwards… No, there were trunks in their car, so Daniel or Hermione must have reminded them.

She really needed a break after this week. Juggling work and entertaining with her husband was proving exhausting right on the heels of the Christmas season.

"This is way bigger than your normal car." Padma commented when Hermione's parents led the group to an extra long black automobile that looked like it would have enough rows of seats for all of them.

"It's a limousine," Daniel Granger explained, "the seats are arranged around the perimeter in the back so that we can all face and chat with each other; and we are paying a driver to take us to the theatre and pick us up after."

Harry and Dudley were fidgety throughout the play, it didn't help that they both knew the story already, but the magically raised children (plus Hermione) were quiet and attentive to the production. Petunia couldn't help but notice that her own husband was almost as uncomfortable as the boys, which just made her chuckle softly, and all too soon the event was over and they were heading to a nice restaurant that Emma had gotten them reservations for.

_I really need to find a way to thank Emma for arranging all of this,_ Petunia thought as they were seated, _this place is five-star. I saw it on the telly a few months ago. _

It had not been more apparent than tonight, when the Patils and Grangers didn't bat an eye at the prices (or lack thereof in some cases) on the menu, that the people she was beginning to regularly interact with were from a completely different world than her own. She was glad that Ronald was still terrible with non magical money, the boy had a strange sore spot when it came to his perception of his own family's lack of overt wealth (they could only be _so_ bad off if they could support seven children, or so Petunia thought); yet he didn't seem to grasp that non magical things had worth, at least not in a truly meaningful way. But, she supposed, that probably was a result of magic replacing and trivializing many of the things that non magicals had to pay or work for. The dinner that she and Andromeda enjoyed at the Weasley's home had been delightful; and certainly not indicative of her concept of poverty, considering that they hadn't been given time to prepare something special. It had actually appeared that they ate that way regularly, an idea that was reinforced by Ronald's appetite and eating habits which… generally left something to be desired. Petunia absently wondered if perhaps his parents were letting him stay with them even through the last night before the train back to Hogwarts so they wouldn't have to feed the boy.

"I was rather impressed actually." Sanjay explained to the other adults over appetizers while the waiter was away, "Magical theatre obviously has more impressive… _effects _you would say? But the use of light and sound in that performance was much more engaging than I have seen from any of our kind of play. There was more nuance and meaning than magical stories tend to have as well, and the control your technology gives you over light enhances that."

"I suppose that makes sense." Petunia said as she nodded, "My, admittedly limited, experience has been that magical people tend to take most things at face value, which I've always found odd since with magic it is easier to make one thing seem like another." Seeing her conversation partners' pensive expressions she was quick to add, "Please don't take that the wrong way, I didn't mean anything by it."

"Oh, I think nothing of it ma'am." Mr. Patil replied, "I had to deal with the culture shock of moving here from India. When my daughters wrote me to ask if they could spend a week with you I resolved to consider the muggle world to be another country separate from Britain _or _India, complete with its own unique insights."

At the other end of the table the children were having a separate conversation that was currently centered around Harry's visit to St. Mungos.

"He got tired really easy, and it seemed like he's having problems with his memory." Harry explained to the others, "He didn't remember that Pettigrew showed up last week, and when I brought it up I accidentally shocked him. He thought I was safe because Hagrid had taken me to Dumbledore, so he freaked out when he learned that Pettigrew had come back."

"I hope he gets better soon." Neville offered, "But honestly I'm surprised that he was able to talk to you only a week after getting out of Azkaban. That place is horrid."

"What was St. Mungos like?" Hermione asked in a bid to change the subject from the darker turn it was taking.

"Uh, it was a little dated looking." Harry answered, "But it was nice, pretty easy to find your way around honestly."

"What do you mean 'dated'?" Neville asked.

"It was just dreary I guess." Harry answered, "Non magical hospitals have lots of white, and it's supposed to be so they can tell when things need cleaning but it also is just… brighter. The walls in St. Mungos were dark, and the light wasn't very strong except in the room with the hearths for the floo. I think light can be really good for healing. They even said that if Sirius keeps improving like he is that they'll look at moving him somewhere he can go outside in the next month. The only reason it might be that fast is that he was secretly an animagus and his animal form wasn't as affected by the dementors."

"Really?" Hermoine inquired, "That's wonderful Harry! When I read a little about the effects of dementors on people I was worried that he would spend a long time in the hospital and we would have to visit him there all the time."

"We? For real?" Harry asked, incredulous that his friend would actually have been willing to go with him more than once or twice.

"Yes _we_." She replied with a lighthearted glare.

Neither friend saw the contemplative look on Neville's face at their exchange.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Mister Potter," The nearer healer said, "it is about time to wrap up this meeting. Mister Black needs his rest. If everything goes well, though, he'll be out of here by the time you come home for Easter break."

Harry nodded to the healer and gave the tired man another hug, "I'll write you soon Uncle Padfoot."

"Harry," Sirius said, barely awake, "ask Moony… mirrors… should be… Marauder's vault."

He fell asleep without articulating his intent well enough for Harry to make heads or tails of it, but Remus was standing close enough to hear, "I understood that Harry. I'll take care of it this afternoon while you all are getting ready for the play tonight. If I'm right, then Sirius has a late Christmas present for you."

"Are you positive you don't want to come with us Remus?" Petunia stage-whispered, "I'm sure there is room."

"No, that's alright." He answered hastily, "Theatre isn't really my thing."

"See you soon Uncle Padfoot." Harry said to his sleeping godfather before standing up, "Welcome home."


	28. Chapter 27: Interference

**AN: Unfortunately, this chapter is so late because I was deathly ill for three weeks in December (great thing to get for Christmas, let me tell you). My schedule is pushed waay back and I have learned my lesson about trying to guess when I'll be done. I'm throwing this chapter up to keep interest, and hopefully I'll be able to start posting the rest of this arc soon. I'm still a couple chapters from where I want to be. But those are the same chapters I needed the last time I posted. Bad times all around.  
****I also intend to go back and fix syntax errors from previous chapters over the next week while I work. I don't know if that will send notifications to people or not, but I will only upload new chapters on Wednesdays. Also, this chapter's title is still basically placeholder, if I come up with a better title I'll change it.**

Interference

"It's a shame that we weren't able to get any kind of wandless magic to work over the break." Padma lamented as she watched Hermione gesture for a book to come to her from across the table with her bare hand. She and her sister had tried to get their wands to trigger the feeling of magic while they were staying at Hermione's, but it hadn't worked. The Ravenclaw twin was still convinced that they just hadn't spent enough time away from magic. After all, they had visited Potter Isle a couple times at the start of the week.

"At least everything is fair." Ron offered, "Mrs. Dursley didn't have room at their muggle house for all of us to stay, so Neville and I didn't get a chance to try anything."

"That's not all you guys missed out on!" Parvati said, "Harrods was awesome! So much better than Diagon Alley."

"A bunch of clothes and girly stuff? No thanks." Ron retorted, earning a raspberry from all three girls.

"Did Uncle Moony ever explain the real reason why he didn't want to teach anyone else the sand castle spell?" Harry asked as he fingered the gift he'd received from Sirius Black.

It was a mirror, about a foot in diameter and with an ornate bronze frame, that was magically linked to two other mirrors. His aunt had one, and Uncle Sirius had the other. Harry had used the mirror to talk to his aunt for a little bit the first night they'd returned to Hogwarts, but he was waiting now because Sirius was supposed to be calling him today. After how stressed the man had been last week when Harry visited him, the healers had pushed for more time for him to recover before he began interacting with one of the primary triggers for his stress on a regular basis.

"He did not." Hermione confirmed, "I have no idea why, but he forbade me to ask again after the first couple of times. He seemed frustrated about something."

"What do you mean 'sand castle spell'?" Padma asked at the same time that Ron groaned and asked, "Why would we want to do extra homework on our break?"

"It's a spell that he taught us on Christmas Day that lets you make things out of sand or loose dirt." Hermione answered with a glare at Ron, "Wandless magic is one thing, but actually learning spell is too much for break huh?" While Ron gaped like a fish she went on, "Harry and Dudley were making sand castles with it and it looked pretty fun, but I didn't get time to work at it long enough to get it down. It was hard."

"Yeah right." Ron muttered, recovering from his shock with a disbelieving hand wave.

"Do you think I'm lying?" Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Could you really Harry?" Neville asked, his skepticism evident by his tone "That sounds like an elemental spell."

"Yeah," the black-haired boy answered, "I wasn't as good as Dudley though. He made a little model of Hogwarts. I could only get the towers to look okay, so I ended up switching and making a Quidditch pitch with no hoops. We never went back down to the beach while you were over so I totally forgot about it until Hermione asked about teaching you guys."

Neville and Ron stared at Harry like he'd suddenly grown two more heads and started barking like a Cerberus. Padma was glancing back and forth between Harry and Hermione, waiting for one of them to crack and start laughing.

"You're kidding right?" Parvati bravely asked, "There is just no way a first year can do earth manipulation magic… right?"

"What do you mean?" Hermione inquired, "It was hard but not _that _hard."

"Hermione," Padma explained in a voice that made it seem like she was talking to a child, "elemental magic is _very _hard."

"Ron mentioned that a while ago, too." Harry said as he thought back to that, "What do you mean, though? I mean, we learned to summon water in our very first charms class didn't we?"

"That is different." Padma answered, "Conjuring a little of an element isn't the same as controlling that element, especially when it is naturally occurring." When she realized that Hermione wasn't getting it she asked the question she wasn't sure she wanted to know, "Could you really get the spell to work after only practicing for one day?"

"Try five or ten minutes." Hermione muttered as she thought about what she was hearing, "I totally forgot to go back and try again until you were there. Then when I asked if he would show you all as well he said that teaching other people's children spells without asking would be rude."

Padma and Neville shuddered, "I think he was just trying to save our feelings there, Hermione." Neville finally said, "I don't think I could do something like that…"

"Hermione?" Padma asked, "If I ask my father for a book about elemental magic could we try and figure out why you and Harry and Dudley don't seem to have any of the rules apply to you?"

"I… guess so?" Hermione sighed, she should be used to things around her and her first friends being bizarre.

"Oh, it's vibrating!" Harry said excitedly as he held up the mirror to show everyone before stepping over to a window alcove to activate the device.

"Hey Uncle Padfoot. How are you feeling?" Harry asked as soon as his godfather's face replaced his own in the mirror's reflection.

"Not gonna lie pup," He answered with a laugh, "I'm pretty tired." He smiled broadly before he continued, "It's really good to see you again Harry. I'm sorry, Moony tells me I fell asleep on you when you came to visit. Uh… wasn't your cousin going to be with you?"

"It's alright, Dudley's in detention. He and his friend Justin made Mister Filch mad." Harry said, "Do you think you'll be allowed to leave the hospital by the middle of March? We play Hufflepuff around then and I was thinking how cool it would be for you _and_ Uncle Moony to be there."

"Play… play Hufflepuff?" Sirius' face scrunched in confusion, and Harry saw him wave away someone who wasn't visible. Probably the healer that was observing their conversation.

"I made the Quidditch team, first year." Harry said without missing a beat, "I'm the Gryffindor Seeker." Adding his house and position so that his godfather could remember that without needing to ask.

Recognition dawned on Sirius' face as he remembered that from last time, "Right…" He seemed to wilt right in front of Harry as he realized that he should have already known.

"It's okay Uncle Padfoot." Harry consoled him, "You're gonna get better, I'm sure of it."

"Yeah." the other man responded, though still down on himself before perking up a little, "Healer Denning just said that if I do well I might actually be able to go." He looked away from Harry again, though he was listening to something this time, "He says I just need to work on my triggers and finish getting my strength back and I can get out of here."

Harry nodded in understanding with a bright smile, the healers had been working with him for about two weeks now on helping him to keep from having panic attacks. Rats, the sound of metal on metal, the sound of wind through a stone window; little things would send his mind back to Azkaban and the dementors and he would basically collapse in on himself and shut down. Thankfully, Harry had not seen that when he visited, despite his screw up in mentioning Wormtail; but he had heard Uncle Moony crying in the bathroom one afternoon after returning from St. Mungos.

The pair talked about Quidditch for a few minutes before Sirius yawned. Dinner was about to start in the Great Hall, Sirius went to sleep early at night because he still tired pretty easily, so this was as good a time as any to stop for the night.

"Uncle Padfoot, could I ask you to do me a favour before I go down for dinner?" Harry asked.

"I can try, pup."

"When Uncle Moony comes by tomorrow could you ask him to send a football back with Hedwig? She's still at my aunt's house."

Sirius hesitated before answering, "Are you sure you want to leave that up to me? Doesn't your aunt have a mirror too?"

"Its fine, It isn't really important." Harry said, "But if you remember, then it would be awesome."

Harry knew that his godfather's memory wasn't working very reliably, but this wasn't time sensitive at all; they could always just ask an upper year to transfigure one for them until the real one arrived if the snow melted and they wanted to play. Harry hoped that giving the man a way to help him, however minor, would speed along his recovery a little.

"No promises pup." Sirius answered sadly, "But you need to go to dinner, mirror call me whenever you want. The healers shouldn't…" he looked away, to Healer Denning, momentarily, "okay, only call before seven in the evening, and I'm supposed to have a healer in the room while we chat."

Sirius seemed to be resentful of the healers insistence on being present, "This summer we can talk at home and have some privacy." Harry said as he prepared to put the mirror away, "You just do what the healers tell you and get better."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Are you ready Tina?" Remus asked as they finished their tea and prepared to head for Potter Isle. It was unimaginably convenient that her parents had allowed a storage room in their house to be set up as a regular portkey location to and from both the island and the lodge. They had the option to go to Mrs. Figg's home and use the floo, but once you stepped in there it became almost impossible to get the smell of cat off of you.

"Okay!" She said as she jumped up and ran up the stairs to grab her wand.

"Would you mind if I came along?" Timothy asked hesitantly, "With Angela and Piers at the cafe today I don't have anything else to do. I could just leave a note taped to the refrigerator."

"Honestly that will be up to Tina, sir." Remus answered, "But if you want my opinion, she could use the support. She has been dealing with an odd hangup in her magic."

"What do you mean?" Timothy asked, not realizing that his daughter was having problems besides the normal 'learning a new skill' kind.

"Do you remember when she set the table on Christmas Eve?" after the girl's father nodded Remus held his hand out to the table and, with a moment's effort, incanted "_Wingardium Leviosa._"

Before he began tutoring Tina, Remus was only capable of casting a weak _Lumos_ or apparating wandlessly unless he spent a good while preparing himself beforehand. Now levitation came fairly easily and he had even wandlessly, though accidentally, cast a _Finite_ spell once when Tina had somehow extended an exceptionally bright _Lumos _to the exterior wall of the Dursley's home and caused _it_ to begin shining. That had been quite a shock, though no obliviations were necessary.

"I don't get it." Timothy said as Remus returned their tea cups to the table without spilling any of them, "Wait… she set every fork and knife separately. The boys said that she was faster than them if I recall correctly, but that wouldn't explain why she didn't at least set the silverware a _seat _at a time instead of a _piece_ at a time."

"Exactly. After the first week or so she started having difficulty extending her magic to more than one thing at a time, and now it seems that she _can't_. She's given herself a nosebleed trying, though I made sure to stop her before that happened again." Remus grimaced as he stood up, "It is hers and my hope that that is what Mister Ollivander was referring to when he spoke of her wand being able to spread her energy."

"Do you think it will work Uncle Moony?" Tina asked, having been at the bottom of the stairs as he explained her problem.

"I think so Tina." He replied, "It never occurred to me to wonder just _why_ wands are how people have started out since the formalization of magical tutelage. I think it is to limit the amount of variation between individuals. I've exchanged letters with Harry and the others to ask about their own experiences with wandless magic and it seems like they weren't all the same; even more different than the idiosyncrasies of wanded learning. I _was_ writing those differences off as power, but then Hermione was just barely able to get the _Figura Terra _spell to work…"

"The what?" Tina perked up at the mention of a new spell, particularly one that Hermione was '_barely able to get to work_.'

"I'll show you when we're there." He replied, _damn_, "Your father wanted to come and observe, would that be alright?"

"Oh yes yes yes!" Tina squealed as she hugged her father, "Please come!"

"I would love to," he replied, "I want to know all about your gifts, Tina."

Remus regretted mentioning Hermione in conjunction with the _Figura Terra_ spell almost immediately after walking down the stone path to the beach at Potter Isle.

"Can you show me that spell that you showed the others?" She asked.

"I will, but I want to make sure that I see you cast with your wand today, so we can't let you tire yourself out." Remus replied, "I want to know that you can use it properly. I know that some people who go from a mismatched wand to one that actually chose them can have difficulty keeping control. I'm not sure if you would fall into a similar category here because we are breaking new ground."

"I've heard snippets about it. But is it really so strange that Tina could use magic without a wand?" Timothy asked, "I mean, both of Vernon's boys can do it, and so can Hermione; and they apparently did that more or less by themselves."

"A combination of that and the age that she can do it, though Professor Flitwick's theory about magical tolerance has a lot of merit in explaining how Tina was able to feel the ward acutely enough to translate into wandless magic." Remus explained, "Harry and the others started with their wands, and as far as I know they haven't tried learning any spell by performing it wandlessly _first_."

"Really?" Tina exclaimed, "Then I want to try casting the err… _Figa Terra _spell first. No wand yet."

Remus sighed deeply, "Oh dear. Tina, I have to warn you that this spell is rather hard. It is okay if you find it too difficult or taxing, if you get any reaction at all. Basic elemental manipulation spells are generally taught in fifth year." He chuckled, "I remember Sirius earned extra points on his Defense O.W.L. by showing off a Flame Whip spell. But he didn't earn as many as he would have if he hadn't almost lost control."

"But they all could." She whined.

"Harry I almost expected, the troll incident showed that he is a very powerful wizard capable of brute forcing most spells." Her tutor answered, "Dudley is apparently up there in power as well, but measurements outside of comparisons are hard to take so I wasn't sure what to expect with him. Hermione was a complete surprise, and she tired very quickly when she _did _get the spell to sort-of work for her."

Remus knelt down to make sure he could gauge Tina's reaction, "Understand that Hermione was trying to create a sand castle of her home and all she got was a vaguely house-shaped box. She was able to do that twice before we were called away, and though she didn't say anything I could tell that she probably couldn't have done it twice more."

When he noticed the glimmer of challenge in her eyes his face turned stern, "Tina, that isn't a target to reach. If you aren't able to cast the spell then we need to move on to what we were actually planning to do. In addition, I'm quite confident that _I_ cannot cast this spell without my wand, so I won't be able to help you beyond describing it. Will that be okay?"

Tina frowned before nodding, "Okay…"

"Alright, now the incantation is _'Figura Saluta Terra_,' it is a spell that allows the caster to shape loose or soft earth into other shapes. It is a rather basic version of the spell, and the sand loses its form if you release the magic." He released his wand into his hand, "The wand motion is thus, I think I would suggest trying to replicate it with your hand to start with if you insist on starting wandlessly. You repeat the rotation until the sand is in the shape you want; then you hold the spell, keeping it active until you are done showing off. That is more or less the only use for this spell because it takes your complete magical attention to maintain. Now, let me demonstrate once."

Tina didn't get any results as she wove her hand through a facsimile of the loose circles that comprised the wand motions for the spell, but both her father and Remus could tell that it was having an effect on her. After five minutes of waving, incanting, and straining the girl was sweating and her breathing was coming faster.

"That's enough," Remus called when she went to try again, "rest Tina. Please."

"But I can do it!" She shouted back as she restarted the hand motion.

"Tina!" Her father shouted, "That was rude. If he says to stop and rest, do it dear. You look like you've been working out for half an hour and it's only been a few minutes, just sit down for a little while."

"Sorry daddy. Sorry Uncle Moony." She mumbled.

"It's alright Tina, rest for a moment while I conjure some things to levitate. After you've mastered wanded levitation and lighting then we can come back to_ Figura Terra_."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I'm sorry Harry, but I heard it myself." Ron said even as the other boy shook his head in disbelief.

Ron had apparently overheard Professors Snape and Quirrell arguing in Snape's office last night while he was sneaking back from the kitchens before the Slytherin Head of House did his nightly bed check. According to Ron, Snape had been grilling Quirrell about the cerberus on the third floor and if he had come up with a way past it. As far as they could tell, that meant that one of the teachers was probably going after the Philosopher's Stone; and one of them was, unfortunately, way more likely than the other.

"But it just doesn't make sense." Harry said, "Why would Snape be after the Stone? Is he secretly a Death Eater or something? I mean really?"

"Professor Snape," Hermione interjected, "and I should think almost any wizard even slightly into the dark arts would be interested in having the Philosopher's Stone. I know he's been nicer to us when we aren't in class, but you don't have to be mean _all_ the time to be dark. It may not even be that, though, the Philosopher's Stone _is_ the final goal of alchemy. Maybe Professor Snape wants to study it to make his own?"

"But Hagrid specifically talked about Voldemort still being alive when we were in Gringotts back in August, and that was when the stone was almost stolen." Harry returned, "That couldn't have been a coincidence."

"I love Hagrid," Dudley offered, "but sometimes he's not all there. He could have just been talking, Harry. You _are_ the one who beat Voldemort before, he might have just been talking about that."

"What if it's Quirrell?" Hermione posited. When the others looked at her strangely she explained, "Well I mean, I've told you I think it's odd that he brings up the dangers of the non magical world every now and then. Doing a class or two on it at the beginning of the year for the purebloods was actually a great idea now that I've thought about it… But at this point it seems like he has a problem with non magical people."

"I don't know Hermione," Padma said, "he seems more like he's scared of muggles, not that he hates them."

"He seems like he's scared of his own shadow. Sorry guys, we'll see you later." Parvati added as she and her sister got up to send letters to their father; her about their upcoming birthday in February, and her sister about their new interest in elemental magic.

"I could ask Uncle Moony about Snape, _Professor Snape_," Harry offered, glancing at Hermione and getting a chuckle out of her, "today when I mirror call Uncle Padfoot, he's gonna be there tonight. I think that my parents and Uncle Moony and Padfoot went to school around the same time as him. If he's like a reformed dark wizard or something that might explain why Uncle Moony doesn't really like him."

"Do you guys really think that Voldemort is still alive?" Ron asked after Harry and Dudley had stepped away to speak to the Marauders.

"Hagrid told Harry that Dumbledore doesn't believe that Voldemort had enough humanity left to die for real." Hermione offered, "If the headmaster believes that then I will at least consider it. I don't know what _exactly _to believe, except that I agree with Harry that _he _didn't do anything special."

But there was a chance, a small chance that Hermione didn't really believe in, that that wasn't true. Hermione had been reading a little about divination in her spare time since Harry told her that he was apparently the subject of a prophecy. She hadn't been able to learn anything important except that prophecies were impossible to escape once they became active.

That being said, the most famous "true prophecies" that had been declassified and included in the books she'd found were laughable. Of them, there were two self-inflicting prophecies, and one that was clearly self-fulfilling. That _Oedipus Rex _and the story of the founders of Rome were based on true events was shocking, that the prophecy in those stories were apparently real ones that were somehow enforced by magic was ridiculous. From her perspective the characters in those stories, even the magical versions of them, were almost completely responsible for what happened to themselves. The only hand _fate _had in that was the telling of the prophecy itself, without which nothing would have happened at all.

_Self-fulfilling and self-inflicting; divination is too wooly to be real magic_, Hermione had decided, _especially since you can't verify it._

"Am I the only one who thinks it's strange that _Snape_ checks to make sure every student in his House is safe in bed every night, but Professor Mcgonagall doesn't?" Neville asked, ignoring Hermione's indignant huff at the lack of title for the potions professor, "Hufflepuff's prefects can all contact Professor Sprout with those notebooks and now this? I want to ask Padma about Ravenclaw when she gets back now."

"No need," Dudley replied, having rejoined the conversation after introducing himself to Sirius. Talking to Harry's godfather like that had felt intrusive somehow, "she told me that Professor Flitwick has a box that questions or concerns can be placed in that he checks a few times a week in case people can't see him during his office hours. She said that people can even put things in anonymously and the professor will follow up on them."

"You're right Neville, the next time I get a chance I'm going to ask Professor Mcgonagall why she isn't more available." Hermione huffed, "I think I'm still invited to watch Harry's special lessons with her and Dumbledore, so I can do it then. I can't believe it's only now occured to me that the only other way I could meet with her would be to skip lunch, since her office hours are all during my class time except those reserved for upper years."

"He _was_ a Death Eater." Harry hissed as he slammed back into his seat with the others, "Uncle Moony said that _Snape_ was a Death Eater that _supposedly _changed sides at the end. Dumbledore vouched for him to keep him out of Azkaban."

"And he's _here_?" Hermione asked incredulously, "Even if the headmaster trusts him, why risk it with the Stone here?"

"Uncle Moony said not to bring it up around Snape, but I _am_ going to tell the headmaster about what you heard last night Ron." Harry wasn't sure how to process the fact that the man he'd given so much leeway and benefit of the doubt had been hiding something like that from everyone.

"How is Sirius doing?" Hermione asked to change the subject, "You didn't talk as long as you did yesterday."

"He's doing well." Harry answered, "He and Uncle Moony had been talking for a while before they called me because he finished early at Potter Isle and it caught up on Uncle Padfoot after a little bit."

"Did you ask about the ball?"

"Nope." Hermione frowned at Harry's answer. She wasn't as sure as him about Sirius ability to recover, everything she'd read about dementors made them out to be unimaginably horrible, but she also hadn't spoken with the man yet either. They were being slow to introduce new faces so that he had a chance to remember them. Harry and Dudley were enough for now.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"No! No! No!" Tina shouted as she jabbed her wand at the three remaining rocks Remus had conjured for them. Each one exploded in turn, blasting shrapnel around the beach. She wasn't even phased when a rock cut her above the eye.

"Tina stop this!" Remus shouted, drawing his own wand and preparing to stun her if she didn't calm down.

It wasn't necessary, as the girl dropped her wand and fell to her knees, sobbing. She had wandlessly levitated a conjured rock to prove to herself that she still could after her failure with_ Figura Terra _(both with and without her wand), but when she cast the levitation charm with her wand she frowned and cancelled the spell immediately. The second time she had performed the spell with the wand in her hand all of the rocks had wobbled and risen a couple inches, but she grimaced and all but the one that had risen the farthest dropped and the one exploded. This had led to her outburst, though Remus was completely at a loss to understand it.

Timothy was frozen in place, his wide eyes darting between his daughter and Remus' wand until the latter was returned to its holster. A shout from the top of the cliff snapped him out of his stupor and he ran forward to envelop Tina in a hug.

"What's wrong sweetie?" He asked has he kissed the crown of her head and noticed the thin line of blood, "Are you hurt?"

"It's wrong." She whispered as she looked at the wand laying in the sand, "It feels wrong, like it isn't just me."

"But Tina, that is almost the point." Remus said as he sat down a few feet from her, "Your wand is supposed to help focus and guide your magic to do what you want it to more efficiently."

"But I didn't _try_ to lift all the rocks." She said, "I didn't _try_ to make the light charm green that time in the wand shop either. The _wand_ did that. _I _want to be the one that does it."

Remus had not expected this; _he_ knew that the wand was just an extension of the caster's will, but apparently her mind was rejecting the feeling of the focus since she was so used to having nothing between her and the magic. At least he hoped that's what was wrong, a simple psychological wall like that should be relatively easy to talk around.

"Is everything alright?" Temperance asked as she made her way from the cliff-walk while levitating drinks, "Is anyone hurt? It sounded like you were practicing blasting charms down here."

"We are fine, sorry to startle you." Remus said, "Tina here is casting spells with her wand for the first time today."

"Oh my, so you _were_ practicing blasting charms?"

"No! My stupid wand just didn't let me do magic right!" Tina shouted, "Something's wrong with me."

"Nothing is wrong with you Tina," Remus sighed, "If you don't want to keep practicing with it perhaps we should take a couple weeks off from casting spells. Instead, work on the wand exercises that Harry, Hermione, and Dudley did to get better at understanding their magic." He noticed Tina react to Harry and Hermione's names and went for the kill, "Hermione didn't use the ward on Privet Drive to figure out how to cast wandless magic because Harry and Dudley _couldn't_, but she did consider it to be more or less the easy way; why don't you see if you can do it her way?"

"I… I think I can do that." Tina sniffled, "Instead of just doing no magic class today, could we look at the plants a little before we go home?"

"We can do that," Remus said with a smile, "and don't worry; I will look into this with some friends of mine that are better at teaching the basic theory than I."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Harry and the others noticed Hedwig flying into the Great Hall the next morning even easier than normal, courtesy of a regulation football dangling from her leg. While they were pointing the beautiful bird out among the flock, Cedric Diggory made his way to where they sat at the Ravenclaw table that morning.

"You aren't planning to play that muggle game inside are you?" Cedric asked in a weak attempt to break the ice as he came to a stop beside them, "It's way too snowy to do it outside you know."

Harry studied Cedric for a moment before responding. It wasn't like they had went out of their way to track him down, but somehow neither he nor Dudley had been in a position to speak to him, until now.

"No, we will once it thaws, I hope." He answered carefully, "This came from Sirius though. Late Christmas present."

"Is he doing alright Harry?" Cedric asked, genuine concern in his voice.

"The healers are looking after him." Harry said as he looked back at the ball in his hands, "He's going to get better."

"Good to hear." Cedric said before backing away, "Really Harry, it is."

Most of Harry's friends didn't notice the odd way that that conversation had gone, but Ron did. He didn't want to worry Harry about it, but he would need to write his dad. Something was up. Cedric Diggory just… talked more than that, even to Slytherins; and the way he just backed away…

Cedric sighed as he sat back down at his own table. He had been agonizing over not saying anything about what his father was planning; but now he felt better, if only slightly. Sirius Black was apparently recovering, which meant that his father's worries about him were unfounded, and that meant that the motion to dismiss him from the Wizengamot would fail.

He planned to write his father as soon as he could with this news. Though he prayed he was wrong about it, somehow, deep down, Cedric knew his father wouldn't change his mind.

"There are notes tied to the ball Harry." Hermione said as she pointed to three notes in individual envelopes.

"There's one from your parents Hermione." Harry said as he handed her that one, "These are-"

Harry's voice caught as he saw that one of the two remaining letters was addressed from Sirius, "Uncle Padfoot."

"The other's from mum," Dudley offered, "I'll read that one while you read the one from him."

"Thanks Big D." Harry said as he opened the letter in question. He recognized the handwriting on it as Uncle Moony's, so he assumed it was dictation:

_Harry, it's your Uncle Padfoot, Moony told me what you were really doing with the football thing and asking me to remember it. You will have to show me that sport when I get out of here, since it is what started me getting my ability to remember back. Your mother never liked sports, muggle _or _magical. Thank you Harry, I haven't felt so alive as when I remembered that stupid ball since (I assume) the day you visited me here that I can't remember. At least it means I get a second chance at first impressions in person, doesn't count if I don't remember it! You'd better visit me come Easter Break!_

After a space there was a second message beneath the one that read:

_Harry, this is Moony. The healers said that your idea to give Sirius a way to feel like he was helping you was genius, and they may ask you to do something like it again. He's beginning to talk about his own recovery in terms of being there for you, which is a good sign. Good luck in your classes, and stay safe. I have not mentioned anything about the dangerous situations you have been in this year to give him some peace of mind. Please make sure any friends you introduce to him remember that as well._

"What does he mean 'what you were really doing'?" Dudley asked, reading Sirius' letter over Harry's shoulder rather than the one from his mother.

"The dementors in Azkaban made it so he could only remember bad things." Harry answered with a shiver, "But right before he went after Pettigrew, before they threw him in _there_, he made sure I was safe with Hagrid. Knowing that he'd helped save me was pretty much the only good thought he could hold on to, according to the healers. So I figured if helping me kept him sane, then maybe he needed a chance to do that again."

"That is really clever Harry." Hermione said as she finished her letter, "My parents say 'hi' by the way. They were reminding me to exercise more this term or I'll be grounded over Easter break."

Harry chuckled at that as he noticed another, smaller, piece of parchment in the envelope. Pulling it out he found the real note from Uncle Padfoot. Though it was only three words, the shaky handwriting and multiple blotted out attempts stood testament to how hard he must have worked to write it with his fine muscle control as poor as it is. Hermione wrapped an arm around his shoulders as Harry fought not to cry:

_Harry, I remembered!_


	29. Chapter 28: Worry and Stress

**AN: Unless my computer craps out on me again like it did last week, there will be a new chapter every week this month. I am currently writing the last chapter in this "arc," and hope to have it finished and presentable by the time I get to it.**

Worry and Stress

"It has been brought to my attention that Gryffindor has the least interaction with their Head of House of any of Hogwarts Houses." Professor Mcgonagall addressed the gathered students as she held a box in her arms, "I understand that I am also the deputy headmistress, so I do have other duties to attend, but that is hardly an acceptable excuse. I cannot finagle more office hours at the moment, probably not until next term, so this comment and suggestion box will be placed next to the entry of the common room. I will be checking it weekly for your thoughts or concerns, and I hope to be able to use your suggestions and the like in improving the house."

"Professor," Percy Weasley spoke up, "I don't understand why this is necessary. We have prefects for a reason. If someone has a problem and cannot get in touch with you during your office hours they should come to us."

"Mister Longbottom," Mcgonagall called him out on the spot, "name a prefect _aside _from Mister Weasley."

"U-uh, I don't know ma'am." He answered after a moment, his face clearly worried that he was in trouble.

"_That_ is another problem that will need to be addressed, Percy is the only one of you who takes your duties somewhat seriously. All prefects please stand up." Once all were on their feet, Mcgonagall continued, "Students, these are your prefects. The prefects are there for you if you have a problem that needs to be addressed right then. If your problem is personal, or you just don't want to bring it up with them, _that _will be a good time for the comment box; assuming you are not able to reach me during my normal hours. Prefects, the next time I ask a student to name one of you other than Percy Weasley and they can't? I'm taking your badges."

Harry overheard Percy grumbling about the new set up after Professor Mcgonagall had left the common room, "Someone just doesn't think we are good enough, I guess." He said to another prefect, "I wonder who it was? They must have complained or something for the Professor to do something like this to undermine us."

Harry just shook his head and frowned. Percy may have been the only Weasley that didn't mistreat Ron too badly at the beginning of the school year, but he was just as bad as the other Gryffindor prefects at their job. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw prefects were _expected _to act as tutors and guides for the younger students; and while it wasn't a requirement in Slytherin, it was still common there. Gryffindor was the only House where "prefect" meant "rule enforcer" and nothing more.

"I don't think he's actually a good prefect." Hermione whispered to Harry as they watched the redhead in question.

"Me neither." Neville added, "The only reason people know Percy is because he's always studying in the common room. He only answers questions because he's the only person around to ask, and he snaps at people that interrupt him."

"Write a note about it and put it in the box." Harry answered.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Quirinus, could we step into your office for a moment?" The headmaster asked, approaching the Defense professor with Snape following behind him, "I was wondering if I could ask you a question or two?"

"O-o-of course Headmaster." Quirrel responded, leading the pair down the corridor to the defense classroom.

"Quirinus," the Headmaster began as soon as the door was closed behind them, "the castle wards informed me of dark magic entering the school over Christmas. It had happened before, but it seemed to be stronger this time. Regardless, the signature dissipates quickly, so I cannot attempt to track it."

"Wh-wh-what d-d-do you want m-me to do?" Quirinus stuttered out, "I could m-make a rune ar-r-ray?"

"No, nothing like that my boy," Albus chuckled, "such an array would need to cover the whole school, and that would be impossible. I assumed that it was just a Slytherin from a darker family that flooed home on weekends where students were allowed to visit Hogsmeade to practice magics they really shouldn't be. At least, I did until Hagrid told me that something has been murdering unicorns in the Forbidden Forest. I have spent the month of January checking everyone who stayed in the castle over Christmas break for signs of possession, just in case. You are the last one I need to check, if you wouldn't mind?"

Almost none of that was true except for the impossibility of such a large runic array and the unicorn attacks. The wards could not detect the presence of dark spirits, only the active casting of dark magic. Unfortunately, Albus lamented, the headmaster who had altered the wards of the school to permanently allow Peeves the Poltergeist the incredible amount of freedom he enjoyed had inadvertently rendered those wards forever unable to distinguish Peeves from any other kind of malicious spirit. Even the dark magic detection was heavily compromised from generations of ultra-conservative pureblood families sitting on the board (or even in the headmaster's office) and twisting the definition of "dark;" now the sensitivity was stuck so low that very little active magic, short of the unforgivable curses, would trip the ward. But Harry was onto the trail of Snape and the stone, so it was now more important than ever that Voldemort's agent be found and neutralized.

Albus patiently studied the professor's reaction to his assertions; he had dropped the information about the dead unicorns hoping to get a rise from the man, who _had_ to be suffering the effects of the creatures' blood curse by now. Strangely, Quirrel made no reaction other than to be suitably disgusted at the thought of someone killing an animal of such purity.

"I will submit to be t-t-t-tested for possession, Headmaster." Quirrel stated, clearly fighting not to stutter, "Is S-snape here in case I am?"

"Yes, that is correct." Albus answered as he raised his wand, "This should only take a moment. I will simply verify that there is only one soul in your body, and that there isn't a foreign spirit riding it."

Two minutes later, the headmaster and potions professor left the defense classroom after offering heartfelt apologies for subjecting a colleague to such indignity.

"I could have sworn, headmaster." Snape hissed as they walked, "Every time I've been in a room alone with him, the Mark has twinged, except this time. I don't understand."

"I truly think we are on the right track with Quirinius." Albus sighed, "Though I don't know how, I believe we have been played for fools today."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Quirinus Quirrell watched in silence as a person with his exact likeness slowly morphed back into the form of a seventh year Slytherin student. Once the transformation was complete, the defense professor stepped forward and removed a pair of cloudy contacts from the unresponsive student's eyes.

"_Obliviate_," he intoned with a casual gesture of his wand at the student's head, before flicking his wand again and saying, "_Memento Falsus_, you spent the last hour studying alone in a classroom. You did this to escape the stink of blood traitor in the Noble House of Slytherin."

"I spent the last hour studying alone in a classroom to escape the stink of blood traitor in the common room." The student repeated in his own words.

Quirinus grinned as he pushed the student out into the hall and released the _Imperius_ that was controlling him. A final _Confundus _had the poor boy heading dazedly towards the Great Hall for dinner.

Despite the fact that there was nobody else in the room, Quirrel could hear his master laughing.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**Two Days Before**

"Harry, I assure you, Professor Snape has my utmost confidence. Professor Quirrell is a long time friend as well. They are both trustworthy." Dumbledore answered with his strongest grandfatherly twinkle. _Why in the world did Remus tell the boy about Severus!_ At least he had waited until after the session to bring up his suspicions.

"_Albus_, I assure you, I asked you not to call me that." Harry hissed back.

"Harry, that was just rude." Hermione chided him.

"Indeed Mister Potter, that was not called for. A point from Gryffindor." Professor Mcgonagall concurred before glancing back at Dumbledore, the lack of substantial punishment saying as much as she did, "You owe the Headmaster respect just as you ask for it yourself."

"I'm sorry sir, I guess I am just a little emotional right now." Harry bit out, "But how can you risk it? He's a Death Eater, what if he takes the Stone for Voldemort?"

The Headmaster sighed, once again lamenting Harry Potter's inquisitiveness (and Hagrid's lack of subtlety) that allowed the boy to figure out what was on the third floor, "People can change, Mister Potter, Professor Snape has a very compelling reason to despise Voldemort. Almost as strongly as you, I would suspect. Now, if we are done here, I believe you two should go to lunch, though not before I remind you once again that these matters should not be spoken of outside of this room."

Harry bristled at that, but held his tongue. Dumbledore had _not_ refuted Harry's assertion that Voldemort might still be active. In fact, he seemed to confirm it.

"Was there anything else?" The Headmaster asked when the two students didn't move.

"Actually sir, I was wondering when you thought we could begin working on the shrinking spell itself? Najash and I only need about half a minute to open the link now, and I think it's as strong as it will get for a while. We haven't really been getting any faster."

"Hmm." Dumbledore stroked his long beard as he thought, "I think you might be correct. If Professor Mcgonagall believes that you are skilled enough in her class, then she could begin working with you on the theory behind the spell in the next week or two. Then we could begin working on casting it through the link. I daresay you might prefer the opportunity to take these classes without my presence for a while."

"That sounds good sir." Harry said before he and Hermione preceded the transfiguration professor out of the office.

"Professor, could I ask you about something first?" Hermione asked when Mcgonagall began to break away from them to head to her office.

"Of course, is something wrong?"

"I was curious. Did you know that all three other Houses have a way for students to communicate with their Head of House outside of office hours?"

"Even Slytherin?"

"Ron says that Professor Snape does bed checks every night." Hermione answered, ignoring Harry's scowl at the potions professor's name, "It doesn't stop someone from leaving after he's done, but I can't remember the last time I saw you in the common room besides that time the Weasley twins tried to sneak into the girls' dorms."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Tina Polkiss put her wand back in its case and returned it to the "Portkey Room" as she'd begun calling the small storage room her parents had set up for magical travel, as well as all her own magic things when she wasn't using them. She'd been working at the "wand bonding" exercises that Hermione's book described for about an hour, but Tina wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing with them. She could already feel her magic react to picking up the wand, which is what the book was supposed to be teaching her, from the very beginning. Her problem wasn't her magic, or her ability to feel it, her problem was her _wand_.

Tina returned to her room with a sandwich for dinner, her parents were at some function with their friends that she didn't want to attend (Aunt Petunia was only a few doors down and a phone call away if she needed her), and thought about what she could do to keep working on magic. It had been two weeks since she'd been to Potter Isle and tried using her wand for the first time, two whole weeks where she had been very, _very_ careful to cast no wandless magic so that she could try and get used to the feel of her wand. Which was hard since Uncle Moony only had a couple days a week where he could take her to Poter Isle after she finished school.

"It isn't working," the eleven year old grumbled aloud as she finished her sandwich and looked at the plate in her hands. _My wand is plenty far away_, she thought to herself as she stared. With a final resolute intake of breath she closed her eyes and smashed the plate onto her bedside table.

Tina instantly realized her mistake. She intended to fix the broken plate with magic the way she'd seen Uncle Moony do it to reattach the handle of a teacup, but she wasn't sure how she was going to put all the tiny pieces from the middle of plate the together. She was only planning on it breaking into a few big pieces, not this!

"Come on. Come on." She chanted to herself as she held the two largest pieces against each other. She couldn't remember the words he had used anymore either, it sounded like 'repair,' but there was no way it was just an English word. _Fix it! Fix it! _She practically shouted at her magic, pushing the tingling feeling of power into her hands and the plate.

"_Yes!_" Tina yelled when she saw that the edges of the broken plate had sealed together, the two pieces she was holding anyways. It took her until just before her parents got home, but Tina was able to put the plate back together one piece at a time. The much smaller giblets from the middle of the plate were hard, but she focused _really_ hard and made it work a little at a time.

Her parents called her name when they came in the door so she stood up to go greet them… and promptly fainted, thankfully not hitting anything on her way down. Downstairs, the lights began blinking as the furniture and doors began to shake and rattle loudly immediately after a dull_ thump_ was heard from upstairs. Angela raced upstairs to their daughter while Timothy ran for the phone to call Petunia for help.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Uncle Padfoot, this is Najash." Harry said as he lowered the mirror so that his godfather could see the familiar draped over his shoulders. Najash raised his head to make eye contact with the wizard; who shuddered once, but suppressed any other reaction to the serpent.

"Good colours." He finally managed to answer, which drew a chuckle out of Harry.

Harry had put off introducing Padfoot to Najash until he could remember the snake beforehand. He definitely didn't think that surprising his godfather with that over the mirror would have been a good idea. But Moony mentioned it again earlier that week and Sirius had apparently remembered all on his own today, which prompted Harry to ask something else. Something he really should have thought to ask Aunt Andi before now. At least it was still early in the day, Sirius wouldn't be too tired to think about the question.

"Uh, is Uncle Moony there with you?" On getting an affirmative, he went on, "Could you ask the healer to step outside for just a second? I want to ask you two something personal."

"What's up cub?" Moony asked, apparently standing just behind the mirror, "He heard you and agreed to wait in the corridor for a minute."

"I was wondering if parseltongue was a Black Family trait or something?" Harry asked after the mirror they were using was positioned so that he could see both of his honorary uncles, "You said that it wasn't in the Potter Family, but my great grandmother was a Black. Could I have inherited it from there?"

Harry didn't get to hear what was said at first, as the mirror was dropped onto its face on the hospital bed. The voices of the two on the other side were muffled, but after a few seconds of back-and-forth they picked the mirror back up.

"I think it used to be one of our family traits." Sirius said at last, "Throughout the twelve to seventeen hundreds my ancestors tried to purchase marriages with any pureblood family that possessed a blood gift. I have a cousin a few years older than you that's a metamorphmagus, her ability entered the Black Family that way. I don't remember any parselmouths recently though, but I could just be forgetting."

"That metamorphmagus would be Andromeda's daughter," Remus added, "your aunt and uncle met her on Halloween."

Harry nodded but didn't say anything about the holiday, they had agreed to wait until Sirius was out of the hospital before they told him about the troll, or the attempt to curse his broom. No need to give him anything more to stress about than he already did. Especially with the Wizengamot apparently arguing about the state of the Black seat with Sirius bedridden.

"It sounds like there's more to this snake than just a strange pet, Harry." Sirius said as he processed that Harry somehow possessed one of the rarest blood gifts in all of England, "It may take a few sessions, I'm not sure how long I have today after a shock like that, but I want to hear the whole story from the beginning."

So Harry began by telling him about the Brazilian constrictor that he spoke to at the zoo just before his eighth birthday.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I don't understand what I'm seeing here Mister Lupin." Healer Fawley shook his head as he read over the results of his diagnostic scan of one Tina Polkiss, "It looks like her magic has been stressed for months, recently more heavily so. Was she in some Wild Magic area for an extended period of time or something?"

"No, nothing like that." Remus answered, "She lives in a muggle neighborhood. She visited a wizarding home for the first time recently…" He looked up from the floor as he continued.

"Confidentiality?" He asked.

"Nothing you say leaves the room," Fawley responded immediately, "unless it's a danger to the Statute of Secrecy, since she's a muggleborn."

"Tina Polkiss is a friend of Harry Potter." Remus explained, "In my capacity as the Potter Steward, I have been tutoring her since just after Harry and his cousin went to Hogwarts. She can use wandless magic like them, and she needed someone to help her control it since telling a child to wait until September would be pointless. Technically it was slightly illegal to teach her before she turned eleven, but she was too quick to learn to just put her aside."

"So you're where that came from? Impressive."

"No sir. Harry and his friends pretty much learned on their own, Tina as well. I had to teach _myself_ how to do a little wandless magic to help Tina get proficient and try to make sure she didn't hurt herself." Remus sighed at that, "She started with levitation, so I felt it was important that she learns how to control her output. If this is just magical stress, will it get better if she stops using wandless magic? Could that have been the cause of it?"

"I don't think so. If casting wandless magic did _this_ then there would be no wandless users in the world. Her magic is under so much stress it's close to being damaged, sir."

_What? How is that possible?_ Remus shook the panic away and asked what needed to be known, "Do you know how this happened? And what can we do in the interim? Her parents are beside themselves. They'll be here soon actually, they're arriving the muggle way."

"I'll send a message to the front desk in a moment to send them up here. I don't know enough about this to know how it happened. This usually occurs when young muggleborn try to suppress their magic. Are her parents not accepting?"

"Her mother is over the moon at her skills." Remus answered, "Her father took a little talking to, he's the religious sort, but he came around and now he's just as proud of her as her mother."

"So that isn't it." Healer Fawley muttered to himself, "That's actually good, parents that don't accept magic isn't something we can fix. I might need to ask for help if we can't figure out what is wrong by talking to her and her family. Professors Dumbledore and Flitwick are the country's leading practitioners of wandless magic that I know of, and dismissing out of hand that this girl uses wandless casting as much as you say would be a mistake."

"Professor Flitwick has worked with those at Hogwarts on wandless casting, I actually wrote him a week ago about a problem Tina has been having with her magic. But I suppose he hasn't had time to respond."

"What kind of problem is she having?" Healer Fawley pressed, "Anything you can tell me could be helpful, and I really want to be able to help a friend of Mister Potter after I was almost so rude to him before."

"Since getting effective at speed and precision, she has found that she can't cast at multiple things at once." Remus explained as he glanced at the sleeping girl and quickly thought of an example, "Did you see the article the Potter Family put out in the _Daily Prophet_? Where Harry and his cousin lifted a whole seated party along with the table between them? Tina couldn't have lifted but one thing at a time, granted there would have been much less wobbling. That is what I contacted Professor Flitwick about."

"Hmm." Fawley turned pensive, "Perhaps that should take place here, after Miss Polkiss has undergone the standard treatment for enhanced magical stress that is. If it's all the same, I'd like to go over the treatments with her parents present. Saves time not having to repeat myself, and it will be best for her to be awake at that point as well."

Fifteen minutes later, the Polkiss family were escorted into the room alongside Petunia Dursley, an arrival that did not go unnoticed within the hospital.

"Could you please explain what 'magical stress' means? Is there some non magical analogue you could use to describe it?" Petunia asked Healer Fawley after recognizing him from Harry's visit to see Sirius and thanking him again for his help then.

Tina mumbled something and her parents leaned closer to hear her better, "I just feel tired." She said, "I fixed a plate that I broke, I'm just tired after doing something new. Uncle Moony has only shown me like four spells so far."

"It is definitely more than just being tired Miss Polkiss." Fawley replied as he thought of how to explain, "Magic is very much like a muscle, it can be overworked and require time to rest. Normally a good night's sleep is enough, but it seems like you've been somehow overworking your magic regularly for months. Basically, it causes degradation, like if you overuse a muscle over and over and then it doesn't heal back properly."

"But we don't do anything overly taxing." Remus protested, "For the first couple months we mostly worked on levitation and lighting charms, just simple things so that she could understand what her magic felt like while turning it into a game. The most stressful things we've done, to my knowledge, were when she tried to turn her light charm green, and whenever we attempt to spread her magic to multiple subjects; and those things should be more mentally taxing than magically."

"Miss Polkiss, do you often do things like try to fix broken plates unsupervised?"

"No sir," Tina assured the healer, "this was the first time. I saw Uncle Moony fix a teacup once and thought I could do it."

"Ah, the _Reparo _spell?" Remus asked, "When did I show you that?"

"You fixed one of Aunt Petunia's teacups, one that Uncle Vernon had dropped." Tina explained, "Is that really the spell? That's what I thought you said, but I didn't think it would be so… _normal_, I did it silently since I thought I didn't remember the word right."

"You cast new spells _silently _too?" Fawley asked, "That rules out my other top theory, that you are actually below average in magical strength and are reaching the edge of your abilities. If you cast silently, especially spells you've never cast before, then you can't be magically weak as well."

"I think asking Professor Flitwick if he knows some way that wandless magic could do this is a good idea." The healer said after a few moments of silence, "There is a standard treatment for magical stress that we can start immediately, but if we don't know what caused it, then she will end up in this state again."

"And what would that treatment be?" Timothy Polkiss asked before apologizing for his tone.

"It's alright sir," Fawley waved him off, "there are rune bands that she will need to wear for a day or two. They function similar to a wand in that they guide magical energy, but these bands will nudge her magic to flow freely from one to the other and back again. In muggle terms it would be like a massage on a sore muscle. The trouble is that since you live in a muggle home she will have to remain here while she wears them. There is a short term residency ward meant for cases like this, you or your wife will be welcome to stay here with her as well."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Oh my gosh, Harry, look at this!" Hermione hissed as she shoved the _Daily Prophet _into her friend's hands and pointed at a side article on the second page, "This must have happened right after you finished talking on the mirror yesterday!"

_**The Potter-Werewolf Conspiracy: Fact or Fiction?**_

_ Late last night, Steward of the Potter Family and known werewolf, Remus Lupin was seen rushing through the apparition point at St. Mungo's Hospital carrying a small girl who he identified as "Christine Polkiss" when he checked her into the first response ward. It is currently unknown exactly what her condition or injury was; but considering the nature of the man who brought her in, as well as the fact that it was only two nights distant from the full moon, one is left to wonder if earlier worries of the dangers of allowing a werewolf to be around children were well founded. _

_Shortly after Miss Polkiss was admitted, none other than Petunia Dursley, aunt of the Boy-Who-Lived, accompanied by a couple that was identified as Timothy and Angela Polkiss, entered and demanded to be shown to the room where the young girl was recovering. _

_This reporter has heard the name "Angela" around the Potter Family before. In fact it was a woman by that name, the self-claimed mother of a muggleborn daughter even, who provided the space where the now famous interview with the reclusive family took place. Could this be the same "Angela?" If so, what does this mean that the Potter Family Steward seems to have harmed her daughter?_

_Loyal readers will remember that the previously mentioned interview with the Potter Family was organized in response to accusations from the Wizengamot that they were involved in potentially giving Dark aspects of society, particularly Dark Creatures, a more powerful voice in the highest forum in our country. At the time, Remus Lupin's involvement with the Potter family was ultimately written off as simply a continuation of friendship with the late Lord and Lady Potter. But last night's events should inspire the wizarding world to reexamine just how much power a werewolf Steward could potentially wield in our society._

_Will St. Mungo's have a new werewolf to contain tomorrow night? Or could there be some other, more mysterious reason that the Potter Family's unorthodox Steward was in a position to bring in the girl. Rest assured, this reporter will not stop until she has uncovered the truth._

When Harry pulled his eyes away from the article he found several other students in the school were eyeing him with a mixture of distrust and fear. He could hardly believe that the _Prophet _was allowed to print stuff like this. They even had Tina's last name in the paper! Even with the typo on her first name, that would probably be enough to find out where they lived_._

"I'm gonna mirror call Aunt Petunia after we finish breakfast." Harry said as he put the paper down, "Hopefully she just fell off a broom or something and she'll be good as new by now."

Twenty minutes later Harry, Hermione, and Dudley found a secluded area of the library and called Aunt Petunia's mirror. When she didn't answer they decided to call Sirius instead, and received quite a shock when an unexpected face greeted them on the other side.

"Hi Harry." Tina said with a meek smile, "How are you?"

"Tina!" Dudley shouted first before being elbowed by Hermione to quiet down, "Holy crap, how are _you_? Why are you in the hospital?"

"The doctors-er, _healers_, aren't sure yet." She answered, "They said they know what's wrong, but not why. I'm supposed to stay here for a few days until they figure that out, and I have to wear these armband things. I hate them."

She held up a hand to show them the four inch wide band wrapped around her forearm. It was thick, at least an inch and a half, and carved with runes that glowed softly with a rhythmic pulse.

"Until then she gets to tell me embarrassing stories about you, pup." Sirius called from outside the mirror's field of view, causing Harry to grimace in fake horror and Tina to giggle, "Moony is supposed to be meeting with Flitwick about coming for a consultation, you might catch him there if you look."

"But what is wrong? Can you tell us?" Harry pressed.

"The healer said my magic is stressed." Tina answered with a shrug, "I don't know, I've just felt tired recently."

"What does that mean?" Hermione asked, "I've heard of magically exhausted, but how can magic be _stressed_?"

"Can I tell you about it when I'm better and understand it?" Tina grinned sheepishly.

"Ron?" Dudley asked, looking the other way from everyone else, "Everything alright?"

"Yeah, uh," Ron stuffed his hands in his pockets, "I was just wondering if Tina was alright? Skeeter's article didn't say."

"I'm okay Ron, thanks for asking." Tina said through the mirror.

"That's good." Ron sighed, "Uh, don't take this the wrong way but, Mister Lupin didn't hurt you did he?"

Harry and Hermione glared at Ron, but Tina couldn't see their faces so she simply answered, "No, I did it to myself. I fixed a plate I broke last night and fell down after."

"I need to tell Greengrass and Davis that." Ron said, holding his hands up defensively against the two Gryffindor's heated stares, "Their parents have been asking them to find out stuff about you guys since term started. I've just told them the stuff everyone knew anyways, like how you're friends with Mister Lupin and Lord Black is your godfather and stuff. But I have a feeling their families will want to know what happened last night since I think they were planning to try and start talks with _your _family until then. Don't know for sure though."

Harry and Hermione's stares slowly morphed from angry to flabbergasted. As normal, Hermione found her words first, "Ronald, just what goes _on_ in your common room? Do you _really _sit around talking politics as first years?"

"A lot of Slytherins are from big name families, Hermione." Ron explained, "Most are only kids too, so their parents make them learn House business early. Greengrass has a younger sister, but she says that she's still had politics and etiquette tutors since she was seven."

"I'm sorry if I caused you any problems Harry." Tina added, "I'll be more careful from now on."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Dudley, can I ask you a question." Cedric called out to the first year as soon as he saw the younger boy enter the common room, "Over there?" He pointed to one of the only empty areas of the room.

"What's up?" Dudley asked once they were relatively alone, though he had an idea that he knew what Cedric wanted.

"Is that girl okay?" The third year asked, genuinely concerned, "I thought I recognized that name. It's the girl that lives in your neighborhood, right?"

"Yeah," Dudley nodded, slightly suspicious of why Cedric was asking him, "she wasn't hurt by Mister Lupin by the way. The healers apparently don't know why, but her magic got stressed and that's why she had to go to the hospital. My mum called Mister Lupin to take her because he has a telephone and she can't apparate."

"Whoah, whoah." Cedric said defensively, "I didn't mean anything by it. Sure, my dad said a lot against werewolves over the break. I just wanted to be able to tell him that Skeeter was way off here. But really, magical stress? How does a muggleborn who's not even in school have that?"

"No idea." Dudley shrugged, "She said the healers couldn't figure out why it happened, but they were calling in Professor Flitwick as a specialist or something."

"Right," Cedric nodded, "well let me know when she's better alright? From what you've told me she's fifty-fifty for Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw."

"Something tells me she's gonna be a 'Claw." Dudley answered with a laugh, "She's a lot more intense now than she was before we came to Hogwarts."


	30. Chapter 29: Goblin Magic

**AN: For those who truly dislike Tina, this will be the chapter with the most of her in it. After this she will move back largely into the background until Book II; but as you will see, I was bringing her story to intersect with something else.**

Goblin Magic

"I don't think this is a good idea Lucius."

"If we lose the Black vote then our power center in the Wizengamot will be completely compromised." Lucius responded, growing annoyed at his wife's reticence.

"I still think you are underestimating Sirius and Andromeda." Narcissa returned.

"Then see if you can get in contact with him and discover his condition, you _are_ family after all." Lucius answered dismissively, "I will still be going to see Mister Diggory later today. We cannot afford for our political agenda to be completely shut out."

_Your political agenda_, Narcissa thought to herself, but she said, "Good luck then, husband. I shall see about visiting Sirius in St. Mungos."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Hey Sirius, I brought some company with me." Remus announced as he opened the door to his friend's room and Tina entered followed by Petunia.

"Hi Sirius!" Tina called out as she pulled a chair from the corner to his bedside.

"Tina, be respectful." Petunia said, "It's lovely to see you again Sirius, how are you feeling today?"

"I'm feeling fine Petunia. But seriously, it's okay if she calls be Sirius." He grinned, "Honestly, whenever the healers call me 'Lord Black' or even 'Mister Black' I look over expecting my old man to be at the door."

"How about you, kiddo?" Sirius asked Tina after glancing down and confirming that she was still armband-free, "You getting along better with your magic?"

Tina looked at the floor and Sirius drew his gaze back to the other two with a raised eyebrow.

"She was doing fine when she first got home." Remus explained, "But she started getting fatigued again after we worked on casting some magic. Even though we haven't done any wandless practice since we left. Strictly wanded spells."

"She was too tired to go play with her friends yesterday, so we brought her in." Petunia added, "I wrote Professor Flitwick again, he said he would meet us here this afternoon with a goblin healer that he contacted after the last time. Andromeda is taking care of the requests that Professor Flitwick's specialist had."

"Are you for real?" Sirius asked, his eyes as wide as saucers, "I didn't think St. Mungos _ever_ allowed healers from outside. _Especially_ if they aren't human."

"The fact that Tina is more precise with what wandless magic she can use than every healer in the hospital probably had a lot to do with that." Remus muttered, "Most of them are convinced that her wandless casting has to be related to her affliction somehow. Mind you, for the most part they think that it's because she's a _muggleborn_ using wandless casting more than anything else. Thank Merlin for Healer Fawley, he and Andromeda were the only ones that were actually trying to figure out a cause that isn't blood related."

"Uncle Moony, are we gonna see Healer Fawley again today?" Tina asked.

"Whoah, whoah, _Uncle Moony_?" Sirius asked in mock offense, "If you're trying to earn yourself a Marauder name you aren't gonna get it by forgetting to call me by mine."

"Uh," Tina looked at Remus for confirmation, "Okay Padfoot!"

"Sorry," Remus said when Sirius looked at him funny, "we weren't sure if you would react to being called that or not. Tina has been quick to adopt new aunts and uncles, otherwise."

The girl in question grinned at that, but repeated her question.

"I think so." Remus answered, "Andromeda wanted to limit how many healers got to be present when Professor Flitwick's contact gets here, so I think he might be the only one besides her present."

"Good." Tina said, just a little too forcefully.

"None of the others were rude to you, were they?" Petunia winced at the worry she heard in her own voice.

"A little." Tina answered with a shrug, "It was like what Hermione said people were talking about her. There _was_ one man who came by and said they should bind my magic or something like that, but Aunt Andi yelled at him and I didn't see him again."

"I promise, that won't happen." Remus said, barely above a whisper, "Stupid bigot shouldn't be working as a healer."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**The Last Time**

"Get that _bastard _out of here!" Tina heard Miss Andromeda shout before she turned back and flicked her wand.

After that, the only person Tina could hear was the healer that was right next to her.

"Don't listen to him," The woman said with motherly concern, "he doesn't know what he's talking about."

"I don't know what he said." Tina answered to placate the healer while she tried to read Miss Andromeda's lips. She was _really_ mad and yelling at two of the other healers now after they tried to stop a really short man from entering the room, "Is that Professor Flitwick?"

"That is correct." The healer answered, "He will be over here in a moment. I'm afraid it is causing a scene because a few of the others were offended when Healer Fawley requested that he be brought in from Hogwarts."

"Why?" Tina asked, the picture of innocence.

"Well," the woman demurred, "besides the fact that he is not a healer, but a professor of charms, he is also part-goblin. As far as I know, no one knows just how _much_ goblin he is, but there is a lot of prejudice against magical creatures practicing medicine on humans."

Tina frowned, no wonder Harry and Hermione thought the magical world was backwards. Her mummy and daddy had taught her for as long as she could remember to never judge people because of how they look.

"Oh, if you don't want him to examine you we can send him away." The healer said hastily, misinterpreting the frown.

"That's silly." Tina said, "I don't even know him yet! But Harry likes his class the best, so I bet I'll like him!"

Now it was the healer's turn to frown, she was one of those that didn't particularly appreciate the professor pretending to be a healer, but wasn't willing to voice those concerns. She didn't have long to worry about concealing her displeasure because Flitwick made a good show of ignoring all the commotion surrounding his presence and went straight to introducing himself to the girl he had come to meet.

"You must be Miss Polkiss," he said as he extended his hand, "it's a pleasure to meet you. You can call me Professor Flitwick, Mister Dursley and Miss Granger have told me quite a bit about you."

"Harry says your class is his favorite," Tina answered as she took his hand, "I'm Tina, it's nice to meet you."

"Do you know why I've been called here today?" He asked, receiving an earnest nod back, "Well, for now I want to be there when those bands are taken off in a few minutes. Then I'll watch you cast some spells, both with and without your wand if you please, and see if I can provide some insight. The healers have already ruled out anything in your home or lifestyle that could have resulted in this happening."

"Okay," Tina answered, holding up her arms, "I really don't like these things. But I guess they aren't as annoying as they were to start with."

It took a few minutes to clear the room of unnecessary healers, quite a few were interested in the chance to study how wandless casting affected a young person's magical development. Or at least that's what many of them were convinced was happening. Filius Flitwick knew one thing for certain though, that wandless magic was _not_ the direct cause of whatever was affecting her. That was just ridiculous, wizards had performed magic without foci for millennia before they were first invented!

"That's so much better." Tina sighed once Healer Fawley finished removing the armbands.

"The magical discomfort didn't continue the whole time did it?" Fawley asked, "I thought you said it had gone away after a few hours."

Magical discomfort? Flitwick's eyes widened, that lasted a few_ hours_?

"Well… it came back whenever I focused on the armbands again." Tina confessed, "So I spent a lot of time talking with Sirius-er,_ Mister Black_. He's Harry's godfather, he's really funny and tells great stories now that he isn't sad all the time."

"I taught Sirius Black and Harry's father both." Flitwick returned, understanding that the girl was alluding to Sirius' dementor exposure. Even then, it was surprising that he was well enough to laugh and tell stories this soon. "They both knew how to fill a room with laughter, when they weren't tormenting their fellow students with pranks."

"What should I do now?" Tina asked as she flexed her fingers. Flitwick's well-trained senses let him feel the pulse of magic she was calling up as she did, "Do you want me to lift something?"

"Well," Andromeda answered, having joined them a moment ago after running out most of the looky-loo healers, "the other healers are setting up a small ward here in the room that will keep anything we do from potentially interfering with the rest of the floor. Then Professor Flitwick and I are going to run some tests while you cast spells for us."

"While she examines you when you cast with your wand, I will be doing so while you cast without it." Flitwick explained further, "Goblins do not tend to use foci when working magic. I am not at all as adept as a true goblin, but I can feel magic better than the average pure-human wizard."

"That's really cool." Tina said as she held up her hand, "Can you feel this?"

Her hand glowed softly with a white light and the charms professor clapped excitedly before his grin fell a little.

"Are you okay Miss Polkiss?" He asked, glancing between her face and her hand, "It's as if there's some kind of block on your magic."

When Tina gave him a confused look and didn't answer he gently took her arm in his hands and began running his fingers along the lines of her magic. He was right, though he didn't understand what the cause could be, her magic seemed to be blocked or stunted in some way.

"Try casting with your wand," he said, "I assume it's here?"

"I have it." Andromeda said as she offered Tina the instrument, "To avoid any other variables, please cast a _Lumos_ charm. A white light, if you please."

Tina stared at her wand for almost a whole minute before she said the incantation, causing it to light up with a soft, steady light. She gave a sigh of frustration when it came out green again, the wand must assume green is her favorite colour or something, but decided not to try and fix it.

"Oh my." Flitwick said as he studied the light emitted from the tip of the wand. Andromeda and the other three healers were all casting diagnostic spells on her as well.

"There isn't any block." Andromeda said after finishing her diagnosis and turning to Flitwick, "What did you see when she cast with the wand?"

"Just what you said," he answered, "I thought I would be able to find the problem by examining how her wand compensated for it. But it was like there was no block at all when she cast the second time."

"Does that mean I'm okay?" Tina asked, growing more confused by the minute.

"As far as we can tell, it means that you're okay to cast with your wand. It's behaving exactly as it should be." Andromeda replied.

"It's _supposed_ to feel like this?" Tina exclaimed, waving the wand and causing a shower of green and red sparks to shoot from the tip at one of the healers, "Oops." She said as she lowered the magical foci before she accidentally hurt someone.

"Do you not like your wand Miss Polkiss?" Flitwick asked, "It honestly seems perfect for you."

"No," she admitted, "I don't like how it feels. Like I don't have control anymore."

"Control?" Andromeda asked.

"Of my magic." Tina answered, "I don't like feeling like something else is controlling it."

"But Tina," Flitwick asked with a wan smile, "even if the wand is controlling your magic, don't _you _control your wand?"

The girl frowned as she looked at the length of wood in her hands. It _was_ hers wasn't it?

"I guess so." She concluded tentatively.

"Well then use it with pride and surety." He responded, "Show me how a true witch wields her wand."

Tina grinned as she tightened her hold on the wand, both physically and magically, and gestured it at an empty table and chair in the corner while incanting, "Wingardium Leviosa!" She and Uncle Moony had found through trial and error that when she was especially excited or emotional it paid for her to say the spell, just so that she could keep her focus.

The table lifted off the ground (without the chair, much to Tina's dismay), but Flitwick frowned as he held the girl's empty hand. The block was there again, much smaller than before but still noticeable.

"You saw it too?" Andromeda mumbled to the professor. The other healers looked at her strangely, clearly they aren't as sensitive to magic as she. She'd never before considered that since she was one of the most 'muggle' healers at St. Mungos, she was probably the most adept at magical sensing. She may not be able to simply _feel_ the magic like Professor Flitwick, but her diagnostic spells were apparently a little more precise than her colleagues'.

"Is something wrong?" Tina asked, "That felt better than before."

_Better?_ Flitwick and Andromeda shared a look before the latter took it upon herself to ask.

"Tina, do you really prefer the second cast to the first?"

"Uh-huh."

"That is not good, you should be aiming more for whatever you did the first time." Andromeda said, "Professor, do you have any idea why this would happen?"

"No, could you cast a levitation charm without your wand now Tina?"

When she did so, the block appeared to be back at full strength. Whatever was going on, her wand was apparently doing a fantastic job of compensating for it.

The healers spent an hour examining the girl as she cast spells both with and without her wand with short breaks between. After all of it though, they could do nothing more than send her home; Andromeda Tonks planned to check in on her periodically to make sure that she didn't end up in a bad state again while more research and thinking was done.

There was one thing that everyone agreed on, though. _No wandless magic!_

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Minister, I understand your hesitation." Lucious Malfoy placated the man.

_No, I don't understand!_ He shouted in his mind even as he said it, as much money as he threw at Fudge, why was he so cautious _now_? Had Amelia Bones scared him that badly?

"If you understand, then what can I do for you Lucius?"

"I _understand _that you cannot be seen to be taking a stance against the Lord Black after what happened to him at the hands of the previous administration, all I am asking is for you to stand by and not choose a side." Lucius moved his cane from one arm of his chair to the other, creating a loud _crack_ when he brought it down on the stone and drawing the minister's eyes back to his own, "You must agree with me that the man is likely shaken by his tenure in Azkaban, his mental state needs to be confirmed before he is in a position to legislate. If you do not think I am the right one to voice it, never fear, I am joined in this by traditionally liberal families as well."

Cornelius raised an eyebrow at that, 'liberal,' was the politically correct way to designate 'light' families, "Well, if such is the case, then I will certainly not be standing in the way of a motion that reaches across the aisle. But I will require one concession, Lucius."

"Are the donations I've made to your friends' campaigns not concession enough?"

"No." Cornelius answered, sounding much more confident than he felt, "I want to make sure that the Boy-Who-Lived doesn't go to the _Prophet_ again and accuse me of attacking him or his family." Lucius wasn't sure where this was going, but already didn't like it, "I want a signed promise form you and any other family you are working with not to bring up werewolves in the Wizengamot, particularly Remus Lupin, until _after_ this thing with the Black seat is settled. Agree to that, and I'll let you do whatever you need to to ensure that we don't have crazies voting in the chamber."

_Whatever I need?_ "I can work with that, Minister. Would you like to draft the letter of promise, or shall I?"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Why are we hurrying?" Tina whispered to Remus. She hadn't been specifically told to be quiet, but something about the situation told her that they shouldn't be drawing attention to themselves. Just moments ago, a parchment airplane had flown into the room and unfolded itself in front of Uncle Moony. He had led them all out of Padfoot's room and into the corridor as soon as he'd finished reading it.

"We don't want half the hospital coming to scrutinize the goblin healer that Flitwick is bringing. That message was to let me know that he will be here soon." Remus quietly explained, "Plus, it's rather unorthodox for a muggleborn to use one of the ritual rooms. We don't want someone trying to block us out of spite."

"Heck, Andi asked me to let her book it under the name 'Black' because doing it under 'Potter' would have made people talk." Sirius added as he followed behind them, struggling a little to keep up and talk at the same time. He had finally been allowed to walk around the hospital without a cane a week ago, and he was sincerely hoping that he would be getting out of there soon.

"Why do we need a special room?" Tina continued asking questions, "What does it do?"

"Because we don't want people trying to eavesdrop, a ritual room is understood to be too dangerous to just loiter around. Normally it would be for dangerous, volatile, or long-duration procedures; as well as things like exorcisms, where any sort of audience would cause problems." Remus explained, "This way we should have some guaranteed privacy."

When the quartet arrived at the ritual room they were met with a few visitors they weren't expecting.

"Mum, Dad?" Tina asked when she saw her parents, "I thought you weren't allowed to be here today?"

"Professor Mcgonagall arrived a few minutes ago." Angela explained as the girl hugged them, "The healer Professor Flitwick contacted for you decided that he specifically wants us here. Professor Mcgonagall is in there right now with Andromeda and the goblin healer confirming that it will actually be safe for us to be there through whatever he is planning to do."

"Both Andromeda and Filius believe that it will be safe." Mcgonagall said as she emerged, "Be careful, the fact that he requested one of these rooms worries me, even if he assures me that there won't be any actual rituals being performed. It is usually only dark families that use them, no offense Sirius. How are you by the way? I'm so sorry I haven't come to see you yet."

"It's alright." Sirius said as he gave her a hug, "I'm doing a lot better recently, though. Padfoot certainly helped a lot."

"But I thought you _are _Padfoot?" Tina asked.

"There's a long explanation for that, which we'll tell you after your session with this healer." Remus offered, "A great story like that sounds like it might be a passable reward for being good while the healers look at you, what do you think?"

"Promise?" Tina's pout was turned to maximum, eliciting a quick nod, "Okay!"

The goblin healer that Flitwick contacted for them was ancient, Tina couldn't even imagine how old you have to be to look like that. His skin hung off his face and his eyebrows drooped over his eyes so far she wondered if he had trouble seeing. Oddly, he wore red robes, rather than the solid black clothes that she always saw at Gringotts or the green that the other healers were wearing. As they got closer she noticed something else too, the symbol (on his shoulder rather than his chest) was the regular staff and snake she was used to from the non magical world rather than the ivy-covered staff that the St. Mungos healers wore.

"It's nice to see you again, Miss Pokiss, though I wish it were under better circumstances." Flitwick said, stepping forward once they were all in the ritual room and the door was sealed behind them. "How are you feeling?"

"Better than last time, thank you." She answered without really looking at him. The really-old goblin was studying her from under his droopy eyebrows. Or at least she thought he was, it was kind of hard to tell, even from this close. Regardless, she felt like he was testing her. After a brief moment, she held out her hand to the ancient healer.

"It's nice to meet you sir, I'm Tina. Thank you for seeing me today."

The goblin took her hand as the corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly, "_Schongr_ young one, _greetings_, you show great respect for your age."

"Th-thank you sir, my daddy taught me to thank people that offer to help me."

The goblin nodded as he took his other hand and ran it along Tina's arm while he spoke entirely in the goblin language to Professor Flitwick, who seemed to be embarrassed by whatever the older goblin said. A moment later though, while Flitwick was bowing in apology to the older goblin, Tina felt the tingle of her magic pull along her arm; even though she wasn't trying to use her magic at all!

"_Rusche_, _Calm_ girl!" The healer hissed at her when she flinched and tried to pull her arm away. Angela and Timothy tensed behind her, but Andromeda and Flitwick both motioned that all was well.

"How did you do that? I don't like it!" Tina said as she struggled futilely with the old healer, somehow what he was doing was making her too weak to pull away.

"What is he doing?" Healer Fawley asked Andromeda and Flitwick, he hadn't had time to be briefed on what the old goblin had planned. The fact that the goblin hadn't introduced himself, neither to the other healers nor to his own patient, hadn't ingratiated him to the others at all either.

"He is pulling on your magic, Miss Polkiss." Flitwick explained, "If you really do have a block, then he will feel it directly this way. Goblins' magic is often tainted by things they encounter while raiding ancient tombs and vaults. Because of that, _Laeknr_, Goblin healers, are very adept at detecting and fixing ailments of the magic."

"O-oka-ay." Tina continued to flinch as the Laeknr moved his fingertips to different spots on her arm and shoulder.

"_Relax_, child." He reiterated, "I will not hurt you."

"H-how can I relax when you d-do that?" She stuttered, seeming to be in a slight amount of pain now as though she were being stung.

The goblin released her arm at once, his eyes managing to widen enough to be noticeable, "_Enschuld_, apologies." He said softly as he backed away. Once the girl had nodded and her parents had moved forward to console her, the Laeknr moved over to Flitwick and began whispering to him in goblin language, which the part goblin translated for the other two healers.

"What was it like?" Moony asked Tina after the group has sat down behind the warded partition in the safe area, a place for 'necessary observers' to stand to be out of the way during actual rituals.

"Uh… have you ever poked yourself with your wand?" She asked back. When he gave her a weird look, pulled out his wand, and tried exactly that she giggled, "It felt like that, I guess. Over and over, and sometimes really hard."

"That didn't really feel all that strange though." He answered after he'd poked himself a few times, "I think my sensitivity is a little higher than the average wizard because I spend so much time in the muggle world. But that just feels like a little tingle on my skin, it's not painful at all."

"The Laeknr would like Tina to come back into the ritual ward." Andromeda told them as she peeked her head around the translucent barrier that served as a partition, "But the only wands allowed inside the ward are Healer Fawley's and my own, as well as Tina's. So if you want to join us, Remus, you'll have to leave your wand here."

The goblin was busy laying rune stones in a circle in the middle of the ritual ward when the family returned. He didn't acknowledge their approach, so Tina took the chance to ask Professor Flitwick about something she'd thought of when Uncle Moony had to leave his wand behind. It could have just been an oversight, but his name _wasn't_ mentioned.

"Professor?" She asked the little man who was holding extra stones for the Laeknr, "Do you need to go put your wand away too?"

Flitwick choked when she asked, and the Laeknr dropped the stone he was placing. He hissed something that Tina was _positive_ wasn't polite, and grabbed the stone back while glaring at Professor Flitwick.

"Sorry sir, I didn't know." She mumbled, taking the hint that there was some reason that the Professor must not have brought his wand with him this time.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Mister Crouch, I know we haven't always seen eye to eye."

"Is that how you would put it, Mister Malfoy?" Crouch spat back, "What are you doing in my home? I'm retired! No more looking over your shoulder for Moody and me anymore."

"Could we perhaps sit down and speak civilly?" The Lord Malfoy asked, "I assure you, I will not be wasting your time."

"What do you want then, Malfoy?" Crouch asked again after his house elf, Winky, had delivered tea and biscuits, "Just looking at you disgusts me after that fiasco with Black. Innocent? Bah! He's just as dark as the rest of his family! As dark as _you_, Mark or otherwise."

"All of that _may _be true," Lucius smirked internally, but kept his face neutral, "but something you and I can both agree on is that the mentally unsound have no place on the Wizengamot."

He didn't have to say anything more, Crouch took his words and ran with them. The man may not be in the Ministry anymore, but he was still the head of House Crouch. At least for as long as that House was allowed to retain it's seat.

"Ten years is a long time to spend among the dementors." Crouch muttered to himself, "But it won't matter, Black's cousin convinced Amelia and Cornelius to take my position at the Ministry. With no heir, it is only a matter of time until the Crouch vote is replaced on the Wizengamot with a family that is going to live past the next couple decades."

"Actually, if we do this, then the Black vote will be suspended." Lucius explained, "If I pull my voting block's support for your family's removal, then there wouldn't be enough left to pass the motion. If you help me deal with the werewolf problem afterwards, then I could be persuaded to argue that the Crouch family still has more to give to Magical Britain."

"Werewolf problem? That Lupin beast?" Crouch thought about that for a moment, "You are already working with Diggory, aren't you?"

He frowned when the other man smirked and nodded, but his curiosity got the better of him, "Tell me more."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Relax girl, let the magic flow!" The Laeknr once again admonished Tina while she worked at wandlessly levitating a chair in front of her without doing any of the nebulous things that her healers said were wrong, "You strangle it! Let go."

After ten minutes of being repeatedly told to, Tina finally 'let go.' But it wasn't in the way the goblin meant, her spell cancelled and the chair clattered to the floor, "I don't understand," she said, her face red from a combination of exertion and frustration, "I'm just making my magic do what I want it to, aren't I? What am I doing wrong?"

The elderly goblin visibly frowned as he sorted through the human language for the words to explain. Failing in his endeavor, he once again turned to Flitwick to translate. The charms professor's face scrunched in confusion multiple times as the Laeknr explained his thoughts, by the end his visage was a mask of worry.

"Perhaps you would like to go sit down and take a rest while we discuss things, Miss Polkiss?" Flitwick offered before he explained what had been said.

"NO! I want to know too!" Tina shouted back; well, tried to shout, she was still fairly out of breath after spending several minutes trying to force her magic to work the way the healers wanted it to, "Don't send me away if you are gonna talk about me!"

"If you didn't want her to be here for the explanation you could have come up with a more tactful way of going about it than that." Petunia admonished the professor, "Have you figured anything out?"

"His opinion is that Miss Polkiss should see a mind healer." Flitwick said after a moment to consider how to address the issue, "He believes her magical block to be psychosomatic."

"He thinks I'm crazy?" Tina whispered sadly.

"No, not at all." Flitwick responded hastily, "I imagine it just means that you have some kind of fear or other rogue emotion that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, he won't even speculate as to what the trouble with you could be, other than to be sure that the problem is in your mind. Laeknr do not like to step outside their area of expertise, he insisted that a true mind healer be the one to go further. Though he said a human mind healer would be more appropriate."

"One thing after another," Timothy muttered, "how much will a mind healer cost? Is that like a psychiatrist? All these specialists are probably going to get expensive."

"As far as I understand either field, that is a fair comparison." Andromeda offered.

"And don't worry about how much it may cost, Timothy." Petunia said as she placed a kiss on Tina's head, "Everything will be fine. Taking care of her magical needs is my job, remember?"

Andromeda and Fawley spent the next hour trying off and on to find a different, more immediately treatable, reason for the girl's condition, but were ultimately forced to concede that the Laeknr was probably correct. Somehow, the girl's mind was interfering with her magic on a large scale. Her wand was bypassing the mental block almost entirely, but even _that_ failed if she actually directed her attention to it, and only casting on impulse wasn't going to work once she was in school.

While her parents were conferring with Andromeda and Fawley about a possible next step, Tina took the chance to speak to the Laeknr alone one more time.

"Sir?" she asked, trying to politely get his attention since it looked like the ancient goblin was sleeping.

He shifted, clearly hearing her, but didn't respond so she pressed on, "Thank you for coming to see me today. I was wondering if you could tell me your name?"

"Firewound." He answered as he looked up at her, triggering a question that Tina almost immediately regretted.

"Is that your real name? It doesn't sound anything like when you were talking to Professor Flitwick." Tina slapped her hands over her mouth as soon as the words had come out, her eyes wide as saucers.

_Did I just insult him by accident? Oh no! _It hadn't occurred to Tina until she heard their language being spoken that all the goblin names she knew sounded weird, and _English_. They also didn't sound like names at all, especially because they were so… _gross _most of the time… but if they were just nicknames then that would (sort of) make sense. But if the goblins did that then there was probably a reason for it too.

'Firewound' stood up at that point, if he didn't look so intimidating it might have been funny that he was technically lower to the ground than when he'd been sitting in the chair. He opened his mouth, and the sounds that came out were like rocks and gravel rubbing together. Tina was positive that he'd just said his _real_ name, but there was no way she could understand that, let alone say it!

"I'm so sorry, sir." She said, bowing like she'd seen the professor do earlier, "I should have known there was a reason you didn't use your real name all the time."

"Our true names come from the Earth." Firewound answered slowly, before taking her hand again and dipping his head back to her, "Your respect is good. I would be told when you are well."

"Thank you, sir, uh-I will." She said, unsure how else to respond.

With a final nod to Tina, Firewound made his way to Professor Flitwick and spoke once more in the goblin language, _"I want to know when the girl is well again, Warrior."_

_ "I did not expect you to be so interested, I shall inform you. Thank you again for coming, Ancient One."_

_ "Have you spoken to the Potter Heir about helping us?"_

_ "He does not think of such things. He is only a few months older than Miss Polkiss here." _Flitwick replied, taking the change of subject in stride, _"But I think he could be an ally. Give it until the summer, at least."_

Firewound nodded imperceptibly and took his leave, Healer Fawley guiding him to a special floo intended to preserve the privacy of those who used the ritual rooms.

"Professor Flitwick, did he not like you very much?" Tina asked once the pair had left.

"It isn't that, not really. It is concerning my mixed heritage. Many goblins are not impressed that I went into duelling rather than politics," he explained with a sigh, "as though I was ever going to be very good at that."

"Tina, Healer Fawley is also going to see about a mind healer." Petunia added, "He hopes that they will be able to meet you, just to talk, before we go home today."

"On a happier note," Sirius interjected, "not everything you and Fawley were talking about was Tina. Did I hear you say earlier that _I_ could get out of here today?"

"We needed to know you wouldn't have an issue with being around random active magic, but today has shown you're right as rain." Andromeda answered, "Your body at least, those nutrient and muscle rehabilitation potions worked wonders. The tests that were run this morning were your final examinations before you got cleared to leave. I think Healer Denning is going to sign you out this afternoon."

"Awesome, can I stay at your place Moony?"

"That wouldn't be the best idea. If we needed help it wouldn't be close." He answered, "The Lodge doesn't have a floo connection and I hardly have any wards up. The mobile phone Petunia gave me still just barely gets a signal through it."

"I'll… pretend I know what that means." Sirius sighed, "I was really hoping I wouldn't have to go back to Grimmauld yet."

"Don't worry Siri, Remus is having you on." Andromeda clapped him on the shoulder, "We have somewhere for you. There's a family living on Potter Isle, but the second cottage is empty. You, and Remus when he isn't helping Petunia, are going to stay there while you get yourself in order. Temperance has agreed to cook for you as long as you aren't a bad influence on her children."

"Me? A bad influence?" Sirius looked hurt, "Never!"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"What do you mean he isn't here anymore?" Narcissa fought not to shout at the receptionist, "My cousin is recovering from ten years of dementor exposure, _where is he_?"

"Lady Malfoy," the receptionist responded, trying her best to remain polite, "Lord Black was released to an Andromeda Tonks with the permission of his primary healer."

"Madame, Lord Black's recovery has been nothing short of miraculous," a nearby mediwitch added, "he was moved because his healers thought a change of scenery would help him overcome his trauma; and that is all that St. Mungos can say at this time."

_Oh dear, _Narcissa thought to herself, _I warned him._

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"It's been nice to talk to you, Tina, thank you for answering my questions."

"It's okay ma'am." Tina answered, still profoundly uncomfortable around the mind healer, Jeanette Withers.

"Can we talk again next week?" She asked, smiling and politely showing no outward sign of noticing the mistrustful looks she was getting from the child, "I would like to meet somewhere you feel more secure if that's alright. Can I visit you at home and we can talk there?"

"You can't come home." Tina said quickly, "It's not safe!"

"You don't have to worry about that Tina, I promise. Healers have to swear a special oath to protect their patient's secrets. Especially mind healers."

"Um, okay."

"Is she always that insecure?" Jeanette asked Tina's mother while her father bought her an ice cream in the hospital cafeteria.

"No, we've known since we learned she was a witch that we needed to protect our residence because we live near the Dursleys. But while she always understood that she had to keep her magic hidden, it was never something that seemed to bother her. That… that started after Christmas. When that Pettigrew man tried to kidnap her. We haven't said anything to her about it yet, because it hasn't been very long; but she hasn't invited any friends over to our house since the incident."

"Oh my, I haven't gotten a chance to read the file that Jed gave me but I suppose that's in there?"

"Jed?" Angela looked puzzled, "Oh, Healer Fawley. Yes, we told the healers about that last time we were in, but they ended up ruling it out."

"Well, we can both see where _that_ sort of thinking landed her."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

_**Lord Black's New Lease on Life: Miraculous Recovery or Dark Revival?**_

_ Following up on the story of a potential scandal concerning the werewolf Steward for the Potter Family, this reporter has uncovered startling new truths in the still-developing story! In the days following Christine Polkiss being rushed into St. Mungos the girl was seen frequently entering and exiting the room of Lord Sirius Black, who is currently recovering from a decade of dementor exposure. She often spent hours at a time there, sometimes without a Healer present. Now, three weeks later, Christine joined Lord Black and others in one of St. Mungos 'Ritual Rooms.' What exactly happened in the room remains a mystery. Following their departure, Lord Black was released from the hospital citing a recovery that was 'nothing short of miraculous.'_

_ But while Lord Black and his party celebrate, young Christine Polkiss has been placed in the care of a mind healer, likely due to the trauma of whatever she experienced in the ritual room. How did Lord Black's body recover from a decade of dementor exposure and the abuses of Azkaban prison in only two months? Is he simply made of sterner stuff than the average wizard? Or is something more nefarious afoot? The timing of his recovery and the young girl's decline leave many questions that this reporter will not rest until she has found the answer to._

"How did she get this information?" Andromeda Tonks demanded of the hospital registrar, "I thought there was no media allowed on the same floor as Lord Black's room?"

"We don't know ma'am, we have checked our logs and questioned all the healers in his ward, as well as the ones above and below. No one remembers seeing Miss Skeeter or any other reporter anywhere in the hospital."


	31. Chapter 30: The Gears Begin to Turn

The Gears Begin Turning

"Lucius, you have to back off from this and let me try to reach out to Sirius. He's family, he will not come after us unless you provoke him. I would not think it would even cross his mind, with his distaste for politics in general." Narcissa was used to her husband generally ignoring her advice or opinions, but she would have thought he would listen when she told him about _her family_.

"We cannot afford the risk." Lucius returned, "Barty Crouch lost his job to placate your cousin, but he didn't go after Dumbledore when he could have. The old man still opposes me in the Wizengamot whenever topics of traditions or bloodline preservation come up. We cannot afford to take the chance that Dumbledore asks your cousin to take back your Family Vault when Weasley finally presents his so-called 'Muggle Protection Act', thereby preventing us from having the disposable income to lobby against it."

"He's already out of St. Mungos, this is not going to end well."

"I have an idea how that happened too." Lucius ignored her warning, "He was registered as an animagus the same day his innocence was confirmed. I asked around the records office, and he apparently learned the skill during the war and never reported it. Obviously, he was pardoned for that indiscretion due to the situation at the time."

"So you think he spent his time in Azkaban as an animal?" Narcissa asked, "That matters how?"

"The Dark Lord prioritized sending the few animagi Death Eaters there were on the raids that involved Dementors." Lucius explained, "I ended up asking Rookwood about it because I thought something was odd for the Dark Lord to risk such high value servants, he said that animals aren't physically affected by Dementors. Including transformed animagi." Narcissa raised an eyebrow, that sounded like the _opposite _of helpful for Lucius' plan, "But those animagi were still affected mentally, it is just lessened. Sirius Black may recover one day, but not even his animagus form will have protected his mind from the Dementors for ten years. The real thing that his ability explains is his physical recovery. His form is a dog, which needs less sustenance than a human. If he spent a _truly_ significant amount of time as a dog, then he would have fared better than most with the deterioration of his body."

"So you believe that his rapid recovery is limited to his body, it will not extend to his mind as well?"

"You said yourself that the healers let him be removed because he needed a change in venue 'for his mental health.' That tells me that they know he would be taking up space in the long-term care ward if they didn't."

"You had better be right Lucius." Narcissa shook her head in disbelief as she left the room. She had a letter to write, Lucius' plotting be damned. She would not let that arrogant fool leave her and her son destitute by challenging the Black and Potter families directly.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The sound of waves assaulted Sirius' dreams and he kept his eyes clamped shut against the light that was entering his cell as he slowly woke up. _Did they move me to a different cell last night?_ He thought to himself, _the sun didn't always shine in like this._ Then his nose was assaulted by the delicious smell of bacon, and his memory came back to him. He had heard the guards talking before about how it was impossible to taste good food under the effects of dementors, so they never took anything other than the prisoner's rations out of the kitchen.

Sirius slowly opened his eyes and glanced around the room. It was relatively spartan, having only recently been done up, but still cozy and warm. It took a moment for him to remember exactly where he was again. He had moved to Potter Isle yesterday with Moony, it seems that the silencing charm that was keeping him from hearing the ocean had failed in the night.

The animagus took another sniff of the air; definitely bacon, eggs and cheese as well. He vaguely remembered that there was another family living on the island with him, but he couldn't place their names at the moment.

"No time like the present." He said to himself as he struggled out of bed and began to dress himself, only to be interrupted by Remus almost immediately.

"Sirius, I'm so sorry. I was speaking to Temperance and forgot to come check on you." The werewolf said from the door, "Do you need any help? If not, breakfast is ready."

"I'll be alright Moony, just give me a few minutes and I'll come down and have some tea."

Five minutes later, Sirius entered the kitchen to find a trio of kids eating breakfast with Moony and a woman he vaguely remembered from when he was in Hogwarts. _Burke? Isn't that her name?_

"Uh." Sirius lost his voice, he certainly wasn't expecting someone like _that _to be here.

"This is Temperance Smith and her children; James, Marielle, and Heathcliff." Moony offered as he indicated each of the other occupants, "They were the ones that fixed up the cottages for us."

"Smith?" Sirius asked, "Muggleborn?"

"My husband was a muggle," Temperance answered quickly, "you might remember me from school, though. I was there while you were."

"Burke, right? No offense or anything, but that is pretty surprising."

"Yes, well, I decided to follow your cousin's example after the war was over."

"Andi?" Sirius asked as he sat down and poured himself some tea while putting some bacon and eggs onto a plate.

"The same," Temperance answered, "she was only a few years ahead of me. I always admired her for telling her family 'no.'"

"She was the best of her sisters, that's for sure." Sirius replied, "Anything on the schedule today Moony?"

"Not today, no." Remus answered, "But your mind healer will be coming by later in the week to check on you. How did you do last night?"

Sirius frowned as he thought about that question. The bed was soft and comfortable, he hadn't slept that deeply in ages. But at the same time his dreams had been a little more vivid, and he wasn't sure how happy he was to be back on an island. Even if Potter Isle was as far removed from Azkaban as could be while still being surrounded by water.

"I'm doing better," Sirius decided, "I'll be a lot more so when Harry comes home."

Sirius didn't step outside until mid afternoon. He may be walking, but he still tired easily and knew that he shouldn't wander too far from a comfortable seat. When he finally made it out, he was happy to find the older boy riding a broom and throwing a football through a hoop. It hadn't occurred to him until then how close in size the muggle ball was to a Quaffle.

"I've been told you aren't to get on a broom until you are stronger, Mister Black." He heard Temperance say from the porch of the other cottage, "But he's looking forward to playing with you and Remus when you are well enough."

Sirius made his way across the cobblestone path to the other cottage as he answered, "Seriously, you have to call me Sirius. Mister Black was my old man."

Temperance looked unsure for a moment before nodding, "If you are sure. Remus stepped out to arrange Tina's home sessions with her healer, if you were looking for him."

"I just wanted some fresh air." Sirius replied, "You know, I don't think I've ever actually been here before."

"Well, you can see most of what's on the island from here. Those greenhouses and the two cottages are the only buildings, then there's the beach at the bottom of the cliff." She rambled.

"I'll check it out later." Sirius stopped her, "More interested in sunlight and a clean breeze than exploring at the moment."

Remus brought Tina by later that afternoon, but Sirius was out cold. She had to go home still not knowing the deal with "Padfoot."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Narcissa Malfoy paused as she entered the private room she had reserved above the Leaky Cauldron. She had been psyching herself up for this meeting for days now, but she still found herself not ready to face her estranged sister.

"Good afternoon Andi, how have you been?" She finally said to break the tense silence.

Andromeda eyed her sister warily, they hadn't spoken more than a few words at a time in over eighteen years; not since she had run away from home to avoid being forced into a marriage with one of the Lestranges. It was highly suspect that she would remember that she had family _now_, when her proxy seat on the Wizengamot was slated to be recalled by Sirius as soon as he was well enough.

"I've been well Cissi. Not as well as I heard you have, but well nonetheless." The older sister answered before the silence drug into awkward territory, "Please, sit down. You must understand that I'm a little worried about letting you see Sirius until I hear your intentions."

"I expect no less, father did not raise fools." Narcissa reached out and poured herself a cup from the steaming teapot on the table, and with slow deliberation inhaled the scent before taking a sip, "Lucius is planning something."

"Wow, straight to the point?" Andromeda fixed her own tea while Narcissa elaborated. If you could call it that.

"Lucius thinks that our dear cousin is suffering from severe dementor exposure. He intends to use that against Sirius somehow."

"And you cannot explain? Or will not?" Andromeda returned, "That your husband is likely making moves in the background against Sirius is almost a given. What do _you_ want, Cissi?"

"Cannot," Narcissa insisted, "I am unsure if actually telling you what Lucius is doing would violate our marriage contract." She sighed, "I think I can safely warn you that Sirius needs to be well again as soon as possible. Lucius knows that he is an animagus, and thinks that would lessen the dementors' effect."

"So he's going to push for something with a quick timeline." Andromeda mused aloud.

"I did not say that." Narcissa grinned behind her tea.

"And what do you want in return for warning us about this?"

"I tried to convince my husband to just leave Sirius alone, but he's convinced that he can outmaneuver the two of you." Narcissa locked her sister's eyes, "I know him better than that. He was always a bit too mad to be affected by those demons anyway. Bella wasn't gibbering mad when I visited her a few years ago, so if Sirius is an animagus then… well, I want you to get Sirius to promise he won't hurt Draco when he wins and comes after Lucius."

Andromeda smiled sadly, "You don't think he would do that, do you?"

"I had to be sure. I understand that Draco has not been the most _congenial_ toward Harry Potter in his words and actions. But I have warned him to stop antagonizing his schoolmates." Narcissa closed her eyes for a moment before changing the subject, "What about your own daughter? I heard she is training to be an auror, but not much else to be honest. We never speak anymore, tell me a little about your family. We have time."

Andromeda wasn't expecting that, but maybe Sirius' return could help the two sisters reconnect, "Only if you tell me about Draco as well. I'm sure what little I know from Harry and his friends is embellished a touch in many of the wrong places."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Harry couldn't place why all the girls in the dorm were giggling and whispering among themselves when he came down that morning. Hermione seemed to be the only one immune to whatever seemed to be affecting the others, but she just smiled and hugged him when he asked what was going on. He wracked his brain as they made it to the Great Hall, but he couldn't place what was different.

Until the mail came.

"What the heck?" Harry covered his head as he was bombarded by at least two dozen owls, all carrying letters addressed to him. He managed to grab one of the letters and open it, "Oh no, this can't be serious."

"Secret admirer Harry?" Parvati asked with a smothered giggle.

"I don't know any of these people!" Harry answered, exacerbated, as he opened another, "And this one is from someone who's thirty!"

"What, really?" Hermione sputtered, "That _is_ weird."

"I told you so." Parvati muttered to her.

"What should I do with these?" Harry asked the table, "A lot of them came with chocolate too. I can't eat all this."

"You could share if you don't want them. The chocolates, I mean." One of the Weasley Twins asked as he eyed a box of Honeydukes chocolate that some rich fan of the Boy-Who-Lived had sent.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Harry said as he looked at the pile, grabbing a chocolate frog before offering the rest, "I guess start with first year and people can take whatever they want. No need to waste it."

"Did you really forget what day it is?" Neville asked goodnaturedly.

"I guess," Harry says, still confused, "but why are all these people sending _me_ valentines chocolate?"

"Because you're the Boy-Who-Lived," Parvati answered simply, "and also the heir to the Potter Family. There are a lot of families that would love to get you to marry their daughter since it would give them a quick path to money and prestige."

"That you're actually kind of cute and super good at magic doesn't hurt either." Lavender added from Parvati's other side, causing Harry to blush, "Did you send any cards or chocolates?"

"Uh, no." Harry answered dumbly, "I mean, it's not a big deal or anything is it?"

"Not a big deal!" Lavender returned, utterly shocked.

"Well _I_ don't see any point in making a fuss about it. We're only in our first year." Hermione interjected. Parvati and Lavender just sniggered at her.

"Is that why you did up your hair like that?" Dudley asked as he sat down beside them, once again late from working out. Harry and Hermione had been joining him every other day or so, but neither was willing to get up that early every single day.

Harry looked back at Hermione. Since Christmas she had been using the potion his aunt got her to make her normally tangled hair stay manageable. But today she had obviously used more than she regularly did, as her normally frizzy hair was laying down (relatively speaking) in thick, curly waves. _Was there someone she liked like that?_

"Um, Harry? You might want to look at the _Prophet_." Neville's voice drew Harry from his musing as the other boy held out his copy of the paper. Harry's heart sank as he read the article Neville was referring to, hidden on the fourth page due to a scandal involving love potions dominating the main headline.

Last night, in a session called by a group of families led by Diggory and Nott, but with several more on "both sides of the isle," the Wizengamot ruled, by a slim margin, to demand an evaluation of Sirius Black's mental stability pending his return to active status as Head of House. The argument presented by the families was that ten years in Azkaban had rendered him too unstable to be allowed among them in an official capacity, and called upon the Wizengamot to remove his family headship if he was found unsuitable. Harry honestly couldn't blame the Wizengamot at large for wanting a professional to write off on Sirius' recovery, but jumping straight to an ultimatum like this was just wrong.

Worse though, was the blatant manipulation that had been pushed for by some of the families in question. The writer of the article provided the background information that the shortest amount of time ever demanded for such an evaluation was four months, in the case of a Lord Blishwick who continued to hold his family headship after going thouroughly senile at the advanced age of one-hundred and sixty-two. The Wizengamot approved the same time duration, citing the vastly greater political importance of the Black family as opposed to the still-relatively-working-class Blishwicks. More than that, the start date for the four months was set as the day Sirius was declared innocent; a rider included by Lord Nott and just barely _not _removed by an even closer margin than the overall motion itself. This meant that he had to be cleared as mentally sound just after Easter.

Harry seethed as he held the paper in his hands. The idea that Theodore Nott's father wouldn't be friendly to him or his family wasn't a surprise at all. The family he was least expecting to be doing something like this was _Diggory_. Cedric had even specifically asked about Sirius the last time they had spoken.

_Was this why?_ Harry wondered to himself, _did Cedric ask how Sirius was doing to know if they needed to figure out a way to cheat him out of time?_ Harry drew his gaze over to the Hufflepuff table, where Cedric was sitting with a few others from his year group. He was reading the paper too, a neutral expression on his face.

"Harry, I don't think Cedric knew about this." Dudley said, noting where his cousin's eyes were fixed, "For real, he seemed like he was truly glad that Sirius was getting better when we talked in the common room."

"Does anyone else think it's past time for Malfoy to come over and gloat about how great his father is?" Neville asked out of the blue, "Wouldn't something like this be exactly what he would heckle Harry about last term?"

"You're right," Harry said, shifting his eyes to the Slytherin table, "do you think his family is in on this too?"

"Probably," Neville offered, "his mum is a Black by birth so I think if your godfather loses his headship then it would pass to her until her son inherited."

What Harry saw at the Slytherin table wasn't what he expected, though. Nott was, predictably, showing his copy of the _Prophet_ to everyone around him. But Malfoy's expression as he looked at the paper was… confused?

Meanwhile, Draco was struggling to figure out what, exactly, his father wanted of him. The Malfoy name may not be directly tied to this measure, but they were the ones that stood to gain the most. There was no way that Weasley and Potter didn't know who was really involved here, so how was he supposed to "get closer" to them? His mother had described her cousin as one of the most Gryffindor wizards she had ever known… perhaps he should approach them like a Gryff himself? Perhaps that was even what his father _wanted _him to do; to maybe convince Potter that the Malfoys weren't involved in this.

The most Gryffindor of wizards could always be played by the most Slytherin, after all.

"Do you think there will _ever _be a good time to talk to Potter?" Daphne lamented from the other side of the Slytherin table as she read the article about his godfather. "One thing after another and my father is getting frustrated."

"I think you may have to just go talk to him." Ron offered, "I did let him and Hermione know that your families were asking about him. So he won't be totally clueless."

"We should probably just go try and talk to him in the library." Tracey added, "But not today, no reason to start weird rumors."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Your daughter is very guarded when we speak." Jeanette Withering explained to the Polkiss's, "I have dealt with children who are closed off before but-"

"But that doesn't sound like Tina at all!" Angela exclaimed, "She's normally such a cheerful, outspoken girl."

"I sort of assumed so." Withering answered, "I must confess that I have an extremely slight Legilimency ability. That is, I can sense other people's thoughts."

"You can read our minds?" Timothy asked, suddenly worried about their privacy in the future.

"It is a very rare skill as, unlike the ability's inverse, Occlumency, you have to have some inborn talent for it already; which you find out when you start learning advanced Occlumency for the first time. In my case, it is very weak. I can only use Legilimency when I look directly into someone's eyes; and I can only get a feeling if you are basically shouting it in your mind. Or repeating the same thought over and over." Timothy nodded, only partially pacified, and the Mind Healer continued, "I would never use the ability on someone if it wasn't for Healing purposes, I assure you. In Tina's case, it seemed she was scared that I was here to prove she was crazy, or dangerous."

"Why would she think that?" The father asked.

"Mister Lupin informed me that when her magic _'disobeys' _it tends to replicate the effect of a blasting charm? Like a cannon impact?" At the parents' nods she continued, "Everyone's magic reacts differently to stress, but I would hazard a guess that she is worried that this manifestation is somehow rarer or more dangerous than it is. The way many of my colleagues gawked over her in St. Mungo's probably does not help her fear of me either."

"Are you saying you can't help her?" Angela asked. No proper psychiatrist would give up after only two real sessions_._

"Oh no, I was hoping you would give me permission to administer a calming potion to her drink during our next session. After getting her permission as well, of course."

"You want to give our daughter drugs to talk to her?" Timothy asked incredulously.

Withering frowned as she figured out what that meant, "No, it is nothing like a muggle pill. It is a potion that reduces stress and excitability, it makes the drinker calm. Hence the name. I would be happy to let either or both of you take it first to understand the effects, if you like. I only want her to not be tense or afraid when we speak. It is fairly standard for child mind healing when first getting to know the young one."

"Is Petunia home?" Timothy asked his wife after debating the healer's offer.

"I'll check."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"So, Sirius, how did you feel when you found out what Mister Diggory and Lord Nott had done?"

Sirius winced, no pulling punches with this woman apparently, "I was pretty pissed. Furious even, I'm not some nutjob."

"And did you stay human through this outburst?" The mind healer asked, her expression neutral.

"I… ye-... No. After a bit I turned into Padfoot and curled up on the front porch to calm down."

"Sirius, I understand that the animal doesn't feel things as strongly as a person, but using it as a crutch like this is dangerous. If you shift as an automatic response to stress then you'll be a long time in getting better. You need to cope with things the right way. Talk to your friends, Remus and Temperance. Talk to me. But don't suppress it."

"I know. Talking about stuff has never really been how I handle things though." Sirius sighed, "It's been nice entertaining the kids though. Heathcliff loves riding around on my back as Padfoot."

The healer sitting across from him frowned at that. Until he was in a better place he wasn't supposed to turn in to his animagus form at all, even when it was just to have fun.

"I know I'm not supposed to," he continued, "but the kids are just too cute when they beg; and if I do things that dogs don't do like hide-and-seek or something then it isn't as bad."

Technically true, the risk was that he would give in to the animal's instincts to avoid confronting his issues. Animals just didn't have worries like "psychological health."

"Have you tried working on Occlumency at all yet?" The healer shifted gears, when her patient became defensive like this he quickly moved to being louder and quickly lost control, "Since you were practiced in it before your ordeal, fixing your mental defenses will be the fastest way to reorganize your mind and get past your current problems."

"I've tried." Sirius hedged.

"_Tried_?" The healer returned with a smile, "Does the animal interfere?"

"A little," Sirius admitted, "It's a lot harder when I'm by myself like that. Temperance can't leave the kids alone to sit with me for that long and Remus isn't here every night."

"That isn't ideal. I was under the impression that Mister Lupin would be here with you often." The woman made a note on her parchment, "I have an idea that might help you, a meditation partner. I know someone else who is working on organizational Occlumency. This person is just starting out, so you could help them and work on your own defenses while you do."

"I'm not really trying to get to know new people yet, if it's all the same." He sighed, "First impressions aren't so good right now, yeah?"

"Trust me Sirius, let me ask the person in question if they would be willing to meet someone to help them get started, no names, and if they say yes I can set up a meeting?" _Damn the Confidentiality Oath, if I could just tell him!_

While she was fuming to herself, they heard the sound of a portkey depositing someone outside; followed by an unannounced, but welcome, visitor letting herself into the cottage.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**The Previous Day**

"You don't have to drink it if you don't want Tina. Please don't think anyone is trying to make you do something you don't want to do."

The girl in question eyed the glass of water warily.

"If you would like, you can test it. Just take a sip, and I swear I won't say anything unless you ask me to. That way you can know how it feels and how long it will last. What do you say to that?"

Tina glanced between Healer Withering and the cup of tainted water a few times before picking it up, "Okay."

At first, she thought that maybe the healer was messing with her, as she didn't feel anything right away. But after a few moments she began to feel relieved, like her worries that this woman was trying to find a reason to take her magic, seemed to weaken just a little. Free of the worst of that baggage, Tina was able to actually examine Miss Withering.

She looked kind. The woman seemed genuinely worried for Tina, like mum or Aunt Petunia. The single sip she'd taken didn't keep her from continuing to worry about what was happening to her, but did just enough that she could ignore it to a degree. After a few moments thinking about whether she was okay with that, she took a second sip and nodded.

"Thank you Tina, I was worried that you were working yourself into a bad state."

"Piers and dad say I'm good at hiding when I'm bothered by stuff, what gave me away?"

The healer sighed, "Well, you were closed off when we spoke before. That wouldn't normally tell me much without knowing you, but you were practically shouting your fears at me on top of that."

When Tina gave the healer a confused look, she decided to explain to the girl about Legilimency. Starting with what it was, and quickly explaining its limitations. Her personal limitations in particular. Tina was angry that the healer had seemingly abused her privacy, and was even more mad to find out that her parents already knew about it. Jeanette Withering ultimately gave Tina permission to avoid her eyes whenever she wanted to and no questions would be asked. Tina's extreme aversion to the idea of Legilimency did open up a new discussion, however.

"I take it you don't like when things are done to you." She stated, rather than asked, Tina, "You like to do things for yourself whenever you can, and don't like when you can't control things about yourself."

"Um…" Tina looked at her shoes as she thought about that. She'd never put it into words before, but that was right. She hated when she felt loopy from allergy medicine, she hated games that have random stuff in them… was that why she didn't like her wand?

"I told you that you learn if you have any talent for Legilimency when you are studying its opposite. Occlumency, as it's called, is divided into two categories:" She held up two fingers and waggled them, "Organizational Occlumency, and Defensive Occlumency. You have to learn the first before the second, and it's during the learning of the second that you find out if you are a Legilimens like myself, and to what degree."

"Can I learn that, I don't want people reading my mind. That's scary."

"Well, Legilimency is extraordinarily rare. All mind healers have to learn Defensive Occlumency, so if any of us are Legilimencers we will know. But for the most part, only the most important families make a routine of teaching Occlumency to their children. In fact, it is generally reserved nowadays for those who have mind issues. The first step in Organizational Occlumency involves getting to know yourself as completely as possible, largely through meditation."

"So you want me to learn the first one first, can _you_ teach me?" Tina was tentatively excited again. The chance to learn new magic; and not just any magic, but magic to protect her from mind readers! And she might even be one herself!

"Learning Occlumency is a very personal experience. It needs to be done with someone you trust, because the one who teaches you how to get started will know almost everything about you." Tina's eyes widened in fear, "Please remember that I am magically bound to never reveal your secrets unless they are a direct danger to the whole magical world. I know we don't know each other too well just yet, but I promise I am only here to help you. You don't have to be afraid of me. It is my sincere hope that we can become friends while we help you get better."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Tina swayed back and forth on the floor of the cottage on Potter Isle, a smile on her face as she meditated with her eyes closed. Sirius was sitting perfectly still across from her, only a foot away while Healer Withering watched them. Whenever she saw the telltale signs of Sirius' animal form struggling with him, Tina would reach out and grab his hand without ever opening her eyes.

This was their third session together, and it seemed like this would be the last time that Healer Withering would need to observe. What the healer was learning about Tina in the process, however, was enlightening. She was startlingly adept at feeling when something brushed against her own magic. According to the girl, she could tell when Sirius was having trouble by _feel_, she could actually _tell the difference_ between the human and the animagus due to him being in such close proximity to her, something she figured out in their very first session. When Jeanette had asked Tina how she had even thought to do that, Tina's face grew cold and she answered, "Rats."

Questioning Tina, as well as her parents, illuminated that the girl had always been able to feel the magic wards on the Dursley property; and had been forced to figure out how to actively block the feeling to stop being weird around her parents. Tina admitted that she had felt what she now knew to be magic before, probably when her parents took her into London and she passed some Ministry building or Diagon Alley, and had practiced blocking those feelings out too. Once she learned about magic and realized that that was what she was feeling she stopped blocking it only to learn that she could feel things a lot more now.

From a healer's perspective, it seems the girl taught herself how to control her own magic sense, specifically her ability to "feel herself" with her magic. She had a startlingly accurate sense of when magic was used on her, and it was beginning to seem like this sensitivity was the root of her problem. Magic has a life of its own; and while there is magic that is "yours," Magic itself is its own thing. Tina could feel when her magic behaved with its own will and _controlled_ _it_. Just like all the stupid men teaching her had instructed. With a better understanding of the problem, Jeanette was sure that the girl would be more ready for classes come September.


	32. Chapter 31: Changing the Game

**AN: I would like to say that the last several chapters aren't presented in the context I originally intended. When I started the Christmas Break arc I wanted to actually end Book I at the end of the arc. I made the (in my newly informed opinion, wrong) decision NOT to do that and to hold to Rowling's 1Book=1School Year paradigm. Tina's hospital visits were originally meant as the first several chapters of a Book II, serving much the same roll as the first couple chapters in a Canon book taking place in the non magical world. I didn't alter the trajectory of those chapters even after I changed my plans concerning Book I/II because the content was still relevant.**

Changing the Game

Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis felt extremely out of place, and it wasn't because they very rarely found themselves in any of the old, abandoned, classrooms in the unused wings of the castle. They, along with Ron Weasley, were the only Slytherins to have been invited to the Patil Twins' birthday party. There were Claws, Gryffs, and Puffs around, most of the first and second years from the former houses and at least six from the last.

"You don't have to hide in a corner you know." Hermione said as she joined them with three goblets of pumpkin juice floating behind her. Once a goblet had stopped in front of each of the girls and they had taken them in hand, she continued, "Padma and Parvati are glad you came, but you should mingle a little. No one's going to bite, I promise."

Tracey was still staring at the goblet in her hand, Hermione had levitated these over without even thinking about it, "I don't recall that I've ever had a chance to speak to Parvati."

"I don't think that's stopped her from calling someone her friend before." Hermione answered with a laugh, "Come introduce yourselves to the others, you don't get to fraternize with the other Houses as often as the rest of us."

The get together lasted for two hours, and the Slytherin girls were drug around intermittently by Hermione or Ron to meet various students from other Houses. It hadn't truly clicked with the pair until they were making the rounds just how many future movers-and-shakers were among the youngest two years at Hogwarts. A couple dozen heirs, as well as the children of businessmen, not to mention standout muggleborn like Hermione and Dudley (_Merlin_ it was strange to refer to most of these people by their first names).

"Heir Potter, would we be able to speak for a moment while we are here?" Daphne asked politely after the other had finished speaking to a boy from Hufflepuff, "I know this is not the appropriate venue for politics, but my father wanted me to learn more about you; particularly your stance on certain policies…"

Harry made a disgusted face that he quickly covered up with his drink, "Uh, sure. There are some chairs set up over there, we could sit and talk I guess."

Dudley noticed Harry wandering to an unoccupied part of the room with the two Slytherin girls and made to offer moral support; only to be stopped by Ron, who shook his head and gave a thumbs up. Dudley nodded, but kept an eye on the corner of the room.

"So, Daphne, what do your parents want to know?" Harry asked once they had sat down.

Daphne visibly flinched, and Tracey chuckled nervously before answering, "Wow, okay. 'Gryffindors charge ahead' right?"

"Sorry," Harry replied, "is there some protocol or something I'm supposed to follow? Aunt Andi said she would work with me on etiquette and that kind of stuff this summer."

"Aunt Andi?" Tracey inquired.

"Andromeda Tonks, I would assume." Daphne found her voice again, "Please don't take this the wrong way, Heir Potter, but I hope you take her lessons to heart."

"Er, right sure." Harry filed that away under, 'okay, but that was rude,' and moved on, "So how can I help you?"

"Our parents wanted us to find out what your opinion was on certain topics." Daphne explained, "Both of our Houses have been Neutral for a long time, but my father has wanted to move to the more liberal side since the height of the last war. The only thing stopping him before was You-Know-Who, and then later there was the general distrust of anyone who hadn't been vocally against Him, but he doesn't think we can do it now and be taken seriously without a sponsor."

"So you want to know about me before you ask my family to sponsor you changing sides?"

"I wouldn't say 'changing sides,' but otherwise that sums it up." Tracey confirmed.

Harry went to bed that night with a headache. Getting to know more people in his year was great, but why were eleven and twelve year olds talking about trade relations with other countries and other bigwig politician stuff? The magical world was nuts.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Hey Dudley."

"Cedric?" Dudley exclaimed when he looked up from his essay to respond, "What happened?" The older boy had canary yellow hair and his skin _and _robes had been changed to the same eye-watering colour, "I get House Pride and everything, but most people would just use it as an accent."

"Ha-bloody-ha, I'm pretty sure the Weasley Twins did this, they've been harassing me for a couple weeks now. I was wondering if you could convince Harry to call them off."

Dudley frowned, Harry and Cedric had been tense since Valentine's day. Neither had said more than a couple words to the other, and Dudley wasn't sure what to think. He knew that Cedric was a great guy, but Ron was convinced that he knew about his father's stuff ahead of time. Something about not acting right when he got back from Christmas…

"Right, shouldn't have asked." Cedric backpedalled when he saw the calculating look on Dudley's face.

"Did you know about what your dad was doing?" Dudley returned, _screw Ron _and_ Harry, We're Hufflepuffs! I'll just ask him!_

"Uh." Cedric hummed instead of answering, and Dudley's temper flared.

"Wait, so when you asked how Sirius was doing before you were just spying for your dad? And what about Tina, were you actually worried about my friend or were you just looking for dirt?"

"No! I told my dad what you said about Sirius getting better because I thought he'd stop, not… _this_. Yeah I knew he was planning to call for Lord Black to be evaluated, but the man just got out of Azkaban! He _should_ have to get checked out, but he deserves the time to get better too!"

The pair hadn't kept their voices down, and most of the common room was glancing at them while trying not to make it obvious that they could all hear the argument, Cedric didn't realize this because his back was to the room, but Dudley did.

"If you were just doing it because you thought it was right you should have told us." Dudley answered with a lowered voice, "I don't think you meant anything bad, so I won't tell Harry that you knew about it before. But Ron thinks you do, and I'm not going to lie to Harry if he asks me straight. If it's alright, I need to finish this essay so I can go to the Quidditch game tomorrow."

"Don't take this the wrong way… but who are you cheering for?"

"Hey, I'm still a Hufflepuff." Dudley recoiled in mock offense, "Harry can win all his other games, but feel free to beat him this time! We're never winning the House Cup without that with Slytherin so far ahead."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I don't know Harry."

"I think this is a bad idea." The Twins said as they thought about Harry's new plan for the game against Hufflepuff.

"It's just one last thing," Harry insisted, "how often do you get to bring a prank into a Quidditch game and not take a penalty for it?"

"One last thing?"

"Dudley made me promise to ask you guys to stop bothering Cedric since he's sure that he doesn't like what his dad is doing." Harry shrugged, "The deadline is next month, so I guess it _is_ time to lay off."

"So one more prank before we call it quits? I get it."

"Do you think we can do it? It's a little more disruptive than me just grabbing the Quaffle."

The Twins shared a mischievous look before they answered, "If you think you're really fast enough, we've got you."

Harry sighed in relief. He couldn't tell these two the other reason he wanted to do this. The redheads hadn't taken kindly to Harry saying he wanted to prank Quidditch itself into changing at the end of the last game. But now was a chance to show why parts of the game were dumb and needed to be improved. Starting with two of Harry's _least_ favorite parts of the sport, the part that caused the most injuries, and the ability to buy success that kept most with muggle parents from even being able to _think_ about Quidditch. A good Quidditch broom cost two-thousand pounds on the low end, and that was just too much for a school sport.

Up in the stands, Hermione was sitting with Petunia, Remus, and Sirius above the student seating. The first year had just finished explaining to the adults about the quarrel between Harry and Cedric Diggory. Sirius didn't really think that any of the pranks involved were over-the-top in any way, just harmless fun, but Petunia didn't agree. Especially not when Hermione told her how Harry had been helping the Weasley Twins brew prank potions when he didn't have homework. Remus was mad at Harry until Hermione stated that he still did all his schoolwork, then the werewolf thought it was funny. Somehow that made him wrong to both of the other adults.

The game began the same as Harry's first, with the captains shaking hands on the pitch before mounting their brooms and taking their positions. When the Quaffle was released, Harry dove into the Chaser formation like he did before, and Gryffindor quickly scored the first goal. The Hufflepuff team had apparently spent some time preparing for Harry's involvement, because they quickly tightened up their formation and kept the Beaters near their Chasers to stop the Twins from getting free shots.

This was when Cedric showed that he was a skilled flyer in his own right. The Twins decided that the best use for one of the Bludgers would be to keep Cedric perpetually occupied while the superior Gryffindor offense began racking up points. Despite not getting a moment to rest or cease his evasive flying, Cedric was able to maintain a relative course and continue his hunt for the Snitch.

After five minutes, and two goals for Gryffindor, Harry noted that Cedric was closer to the Chaser formations, and rather more low to the ground, than previously and signalled the Twins to begin their gambit. Harry flew out wide, and the nearer Twin set up a Bludger for his brother to launch at Harry perpendicular to his flightpath. Harry kept going, and the Bludger locked on to his magical signature when he became the closest person to it. There was an audible gasp that rippled through the crowd when a Weasley fired a Bludger at his own Seeker, a gasp that turned into a tenuous cheer when Harry's plan became apparent.

Lee Jordan had been about to yell at the Weasleys through his position as announcer, but found himself cackling into his own _Sonorous_ charm as Professor Mcgonagall tried to get him to back away from the spell's area while simultaneously checking to see if Madam Hooch would call this as a foul. She had never heard of someone trying this before, and didn't even know if it was a legal play.

Bludgers were enchanted to chase after players, using the magical signature of the rider/broomstick combo to determine targets without the risk of the ball accidentally going after the spectators. They had another specific enchantment that allowed them to move, and therefore had a maximum speed. A speed that the Nimbus Two-Thousand was capable of exceeding; and if it could be exceeded then it could be matched.

The Bludger had to bend in flight, bleeding off all the extra speed it acquired from being struck by a Beater bat and attempted to run down the only player nearby under its own power alone. The result was that Harry had adjusted his speed to match the Bludger, guiding it like a horse-and-(dangerous)carriage right into the Hufflepuff Chaser formation. The Chasers were used to Harry diving on them like that by this point to try and steal; and the one with the Quaffle avoided him only for the group to be scattered completely by the Bludger chasing behind when he tried to return to formation, costing the 'Puffs possession of the Quaffle in the process when he fumbled a hasty pass.

Cedric hadn't seen what Harry was doing, he thought he saw a glint of gold near the ground earlier and had drifted beneath the area of play, only to see that is was just a shine off of some jewelry a student was wearing as they made their way up to their part of the stands, late for the game. Because of this, when Cedric looked up and saw his entire offensive line break apart when Harry flew through them, he was confused. His confusion turned to surprise, shock, then a slight twinge of fear, as he realised what was happening.

Harry barrelled straight down, careful to control his speed so that he wouldn't lose his tagalong. Keeping the iron ball attached to him as he flew through the opposing Chasers was the hardest part, but he had managed it by slowing until the Bludger was only about a dozen feet behind him. It swerved at the Chasers it passed, but the iron ball was moving down too quickly to lock onto them. Because the Bludger was so close behind Harry, Cedric barely had time to react; in fact later he would admit that only Harry's manic grin let him know something was up.

Cedric and Harry both rolled to avoid each other mid-pass, but Cedric was then forced to pull his broom hard away to try and avoid the Bludger. He had no such luck, and the iron ball struck the bottom of Cedric's broom at a glancing blow, throwing him off fifteen feet above the ground. He wasn't moving very fast, and the fall wasn't too great, but Cedric was confident that he had broken, or at least sprained, his wrist in the fall. Despite his injury, the reason Cedric groaned when he stood up wasn't his wrist, it was his broom which didn't have the momentum to move anywhere, and was hovering in the air a little ways from where he'd fallen off. In situations like this, since wands were not allowed and he didn't know how to summon it wandlessly, someone from his team had to bring his broom down to him; and that loss of a player cost Hufflepuff yet another goal.

"Oh my!" Petunia covered her gaping mouth with her hand as she watched the young man playing against Harry stand up cradling his wrist as one of his Beaters brought him is broom, "I never thought Harry would do something so dangerous, especially not to someone else!"

"Are you kidding?" Sirius asked as his grin spread from ear to ear, and he let out a laugh that reminded everyone present of a dog barking, "That was brilliant!"

"I don't like the idea that Harry is taking revenge on that young man for his father." Petunia glared at the man.

"I'm sure that is not the only reason." Remus added to dispel the tension, "Harry doesn't really like Quidditch. The minutiae at least." He amended hastily at Sirius' hurt look, "He loves the idea of a ball-sport on brooms, he just doesn't like some of the rules of Quidditch. Honestly? Having spent a little time in the Muggle world, I can understand why. Compared to Muggle games, Quidditch is much more likely to be unbalanced or one-sided."

"Harry and I have gone over a lot of Quidditch rules." Hermione said as she kept her eyes on her friend, who was repeating his pass through the 'Puff Chaser line with the Bludger even closer this time, "But if I had known this was what he was going to do with it, I wouldn't have helped him." She added indignantly.

"Yes, he's asked me a couple times about things Seekers are and aren't allowed to do." Remus confirmed, "I think he's trying to find loopholes in the rules to get the game updated. I didn't know this until I was looking up answers for Harry, but did you know that the game hasn't had any real rules changes in Quidditch since the early seventeen-hundreds?"

"That was in _Quidditch through the Ages_!" Hermione answered excitedly, "I hadn't even thought about that, but Harry's right. A lot has changed in nearly _three-hundred years _especially changes in brooms! How can the game still have all the exact same rules?"

"At least Seekers don't hunt and kill a live bird every game anymore." Sirius answered with a shrug, "Now that was messed up, it got replaced with the Golden Snitch when the bird became endangered."

While Petunia and Hermione were wearing out their indignation at the barbaric origin of the game, Harry was wearing out his enjoyment of leading cannonballs into the other team. Deciding to try one last thing before he went back to just helping his team score and hunting the Snitch, Harry slowed down to let the iron ball get even closer. Once it was only a few feet away he began leading it at it's full speed towards the Chaser group. The maneuver was very difficult to perform with the wiggle room he had. The Bludger only moved a little slower than the Nimbus' top maneuverable speed, and he felt his broom get bumped from behind at least once. This time, instead of simply letting it trail him through, Harry rapidly pulled up about twenty feet from the formation and accelerated at a ninety degree angle with a speed that lost the Bludger in moments. His Nimbus may only move a little bit faster, but its acceleration was far superior.

The result was Harry's Bludger launching at the other team like a curveball and scattering them yet again. Normally the team was listening for the sound of iron-on-iron to know when to beware of Bludgers coming at them, but Harry's method left the entire Hufflepuff team having to keep an eye on an extra element lest they find themselves needing to barrel-roll away from a silent clobbering.

After pulling out of his climb, Harry signalled to the Twins to stop sending him Bludgers and then went out to see if the Snitch was ready to make an appearance. He chuckled to himself when he realized that Cedric was still trying to stay on the other side of the pitch from him.

"Did you know that Professor Snape tried to get permission to referee this game?" Hermione asked the others after Harry stopped his ridiculously dangerous stunts. _Seriously, Aunt Petunia needs to ground him for that!_

"Why?" Remus returned, clamping a hand over Sirius' mouth to keep him from saying anything derogatory about the Potions Master.

"The Headmaster said that he thought it would be a good idea to add security for Harry, but Harry insisted that the Headmaster being here would be enough."

"Well." Remus mused merrily, "I can only imagine how ridiculous this game would have been with Severus on a broom as well. Madame Hooch looks ready to strangle Harry."

"If he gets those boys to pass him a Bludger again," Petunia muttered as her knuckles slowly turned white from her death grip on the arms of her seat, "_I_ just might strangle him. If every game is going to be life-or-death then he won't be allowed to play anymore."

The game lasted another half-hour, during which time Harry didn't try his Bludger-leading trick again, before the Snitch made an appearance. Cedric was the first to see it, but Harry was closer. The older boy tried to goad Harry into chasing him away from the ball, but Harry saw it at the last minute and flipped his broom upside down to turn 180 degrees and give chase. Cedric put up a good fight, the Snitch juked towards him to try and escape Harry's grasp, but with a hurt wrist he wasn't able to maneuver his broom well enough to catch up.

When Harry landed, holding up the Snitch to show his team, he was suprised to get a slap across the face from Katie Bell, "If you _ever_ do something that stupid again without warning us all first I'll… Urgh!"

The girl turned and stomped a few feet away, Alicia and Angelina glared at him, but otherwise didn't let their displeasure be known. Harry was stunned, and glanced over to Oliver. The captain was clearly about to congratulate Harry and tell him what an amazing idea his gambit was… until that. It didn't take too long for Alicia and Angelina to turn their ire at the Twins, who wisely began promising anything the girls wanted to stay on their good sides.

"Harry Potter! You get over here young man!" The colour drained from Harry's face as he turned to see Aunt Petunia standing a ways away with her arms crossed and a sour look on her face. Hermione was standing right beside her trying to imitate her stance and expression.

Harry originally planned to defend himself; but behind his Aunt he saw Cedric being led off the Pitch by Madam Pomphrey. It was at that moment that he realized he had hurt Cedric more than he intended. When the third year was unseated in the first pass, Harry had panicked for a moment; particularly when he heard the loud _thump _of the Bludger digging into the ground moments later. But after seeing his opponent get back on his broom, Harry assumed he had come out of it no worse for wear.

"Aunt Petunia, Hermione, I'm so sorry I worried you." Harry said contritely, "I just-"

"Remus explained how you think you can get the school to look at the rules of Quidditch by doing things like that," Petunia's voice started hard, but calmed as she took a deep breath and enveloped her nephew in a hug, "but please be more careful Harry. And let us know in the future if you are going to do something I need to ground you for!"

Hermione wasn't so easy to calm, "How could you do something that reckless Harry! I was so worried!" She was so angry she was practically vibrating, "And to think, I even helped you!"

"I'm sorry Hermione. I just thought if I showed that the Bludgers were too easy to mess with like that then they'd do something to make them safer."

"Crap." Remus muttered as he noticed that they were missing someone.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Whoah, sorry!" Harry called as he swerved out of the way of the person leaving the Hospital Wing, only to realize it was exactly who he was looking for, "Cedric? Are you okay?"

"Why do you care? You're the one who broke my wrist." Cedric muttered angrily as he made to walk away rubbing his still-sore wrist.

"I do, I'm sorry! I didn't want you to get hurt, I... I just wanted to freak you out a little, I swear." Harry waited a moment until Cedric turned around, "I told the Twins I just wanted to do one more thing to mess with you and then we were done. I'm so sorry this happened, I wasn't thinking straight and shouldn't have tried to kill two birds with one stone." He paused for a second, realizing the rather on-the-nose nature of that metaphor, "Uh, non magical saying. I shouldn't have tried to do two things in one like that is what it means."

Cedric was waging an internal battle. A very large part of him wanted to simply turn and walk away. He had endured the pranks and nonsense for a month now because he felt guilty, but _attacking him_ crossed a line. But still, two things?

"So you had another motive besides killing me?" Cedric asked, "Either with the Bludger, or by just scaring me to death?"

"Uh." Harry mumbled, "I wanted to do the thing with the Bludger anyways. I think if I show how unfair some parts of Quidditch are, people will start looking at updating it a little. I mean really, I _love_ my Nimbus. But I shouldn't be able to have a broom like that when some people are on older ones that can't compete. I _know _it isn't just my Nimbus, because I flew on Dudley's broom some too, but I didn't like how, after the first game, I felt like I had somehow bought the win. Even with someone cursing my broom, I _knew_ that it was better than the one the Slytherin Seeker was on, it bothered me."

Cedric wasn't sure how to answer that, his own broom was rather good. It was no Nimbus, and wouldn't go outrunning a Bludger, but it was top-of-the-line when he got it.

"Then I sorta asked around and found out that there's pretty much no muggleborn players in the school." Harry continued explaining, "Angelina is, but she said she's only able to play because Alicia and Oliver pitched in to get her a broom. Most muggleborn are interested right up until they ask how much a broom costs, then they just drop it."

"Why though?"

"Some things in the magical world are really expensive for seemingly no reason. Decent broomsticks cost as much as cheap cars. Non magicals just don't buy those kinds of things for kids, only families like Malfoy's or Nott's do."

"So… what? You want Quidditch to regulate brooms or something?"

"I think that would be a start." Harry answered confidently, "I also wish the Bludgers would just be changed entirely. I don't think the high risk of serious injury is required for fun." He looked down at Cedric's wrist, "Um, how did your wrist get better so fast? When Neville broke his at the start of the Fall term, he was in the Wing all afternoon."

"Madam Pomphrey said it wasn't too bad." Cedric answered truthfully, "She just cast a reknitting charm on it and I was good to go after a few minutes. It's still sore though. I guess Longbottom's break was worse than mine."

Just inside the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomphrey was eavesdropping on the pair in case she needed to break up an argument. But by the end, she was content that there would be no more metaphorical fires today. She couldn't help but agree with Harry Potter's assessment of Bludgers in Quidditch though, and said a silent prayer that the boy would succeed (hopefully without any more incidents like todays, however).

"I'm glad you apologized to Cedric, but that was really gnarly Harry." Dudley confronted his cousin near the Defense classroom, only a few dozen steps from where he had parted ways with Cedric after giving his apology, "I know you saw Cedric being taken to the Hospital Wing on the pitch though, I would have thought you'd have been here earlier."

"Yeah, I would have been." Harry agreed as he tried to ignore the sounds his wand was now making, "I wish I could have been there when his wrist was healed, apparently there's a spell that fixes broken bones if they aren't too bad, but Uncle Moony and I had to calm down Sirius."

"What happened?" Dudley inquired, he'd said 'hi' and 'bye' to his mum and headed to meet Cedric at the Hospital wing right after the game ended. To be honest, he was quite perturbed when Harry didn't get there before he left.

Harry shuddered, "Urgh, sometimes I wish we could go get that Philosopher's Stone and use it to heal Sirius. He got into a really loud argument with Snape after the game and looked like he was gonna lose it."

"He'll get better Harry, you'll see." Dudley put a hand on his cousin's shoulder in support noting for the first time that Harry was tense, "Just you wait, he'll end up better off than he ever could have been from the Stone just fixing everything with a snap."

Harry frowned, but nodded. Dudley was right, Sirius didn't need a Grand Panacea to get better, just time and support.

From inside the Defense classroom, Quirrell grumbled to himself. He had been sure that Potter would have been the key to overcoming the Stone's last defense, Dumbledore was too smart for his own good sometimes; but with the declaration that he would use the thing to heal his godfather if given the chance, the professor was back to square one.

As they walked away, Harry glanced around and drew his wand once he was sure they were alone, looking at it with a frown.

"What is it?" Dudley asked without breaking stride, only glancing around more furtively.

"It was practically _hissing _at me just then, I'm surprised _you_ didn't hear it" Harry answered with a confused expression, that got stronger after another moment, "I didn't see anyone around but it just stopped."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Sirius stop!" Remus called as he ran to break up the argument between his friend and Severus Snape, Harry chasing right beside him. Neither had seen how the altercation had started, being too focused on Aunt Petunia scolding Harry, but they both saw Sirius begin yelling at the professor and make to grab at him.

"You didn't hear what he said Moony!"

"It doesn't _matter_ what he said, you need to stay with us!"

"Keep your mutt under control, Lupin." Snape said with his characteristic dour expression, "I have better things to do than deal with an insane dog that has slipped its muzzle."

The only thing that stopped Sirius from lunging at Snape after that was Harry's arms wrapped around him. The boy could feel his godfather's anger boiling under him as Sirius fought to keep himself from shaking.

Remus glared at Snape but didn't respond, instead turning his back on the professor and helping Harry to hold Sirius, "It's okay Padfoot, just ignore him. I'll deal with him, you and Harry go rejoin Petunia."

With some effort, the pair were able to convince Sirius to back off, and Harry took him back to where the others were. He wasn't sure this was the best opportunity, what with Sirius being so stressed and frustrated at the moment, but perhaps it was time for the Weasley Twins to meet the other remaining Marauder? Sirius remembered his school days fairly well, so the Twins wouldn't want for stories to hear.

Once the pair were on their way, Remus turned back to Snape, "What was that? He's been doing well the last couple of weeks."

"Hrmph, I simply expressed that he was looking well for one who had been in among the dementors for so long." Snape responded smoothly, "He overreacted."

The werewolf sighed, "I'm sorry. I'll need to let his healer know."

That response surprised the Potions Master, he was sure that Lupin would assume he had antagonized Black into aggression and defended his friend. Was Black really that off, that Lupin would just accept what Snape said about him?

"I… may have referred to the late Potter as well when I spoke to him." Snape confessed after a moment, "I perhaps… underestimated… the fragility of his mental state."

It took every bit of his control not to shout at the man anew, but Remus simply nodded, Petunia wouldn't appreciate him making waves with one of Harry and Dudley's teachers, especially not one with such a hot-and-cold relationship with both boys, "Thank you for letting me know. I'm sorry if he caused you any distress."

As Lupin walked away to rejoin the others in his group, Snape was left to wonder what just happened. He had provoked Sirius into making a scene, potentially even damaging his chances come Easter, but it was _Severus _who left the confrontation feeling down. As he made his solitary way to the castle, the Potions Master was forced to ponder; _what was the point in holding a grudge if the other side ignored it?_


	33. Chapter 32: Building Bridges

**AN: I am not getting as much writing done as I would like due to this pandemic. My parents are both big into county politics, so I actually have more work than normal right now. I have a chapter for next week ready to go, and am continuing to work. Stay safe everyone!**

Building Bridges

"_Mind-to-Mind connection isn't actually Legilimency. Anyone skilled enough in Occlumency can do it if it is consensual."_ Healer Withering had explained to Tina's parents before the current session,_ "As long as she trusts me, and lets me in, I can use a spell with my wand to let us communicate on the mental level. That is why I was happy to let her help Mister Black. She has been learning to not instantly reject or ignore the magic of others when it brushes against hers. It was the magical equivalent of flinching and curling into oneself at the slightest touch."_

Jeanette Withering was fascinated by the contents of young Tina's mind. The girl had no organization yet to speak of, her thoughts and memories flitted past the Healer's presence like wisps of dream, but certain markers were already apparent after only a few minutes in the child's consciousness.

Tina, she found, focused on people when she formed the backbone of her memories, rather than events like herself, but the child had a very odd way of going about it. Her subconscious created interesting pictures of people in her mind, emphasizing certain personality traits of the individual while suppressing others to create the girl's personal vision of the people she knew. A stray thought that passed her by peaked Jeanette's curiosity, and she followed the name 'Harry Potter,' until she found the memory that had been retreating from her; the day Tina and Harry met.

Tina's memory of that event was not what the healer expected. Her first reaction was shock, then surprise…

… and lastly, understanding. Unfortunately, Tina jerked back when the healer latched onto that particular memory, flinching away and eyeing the woman's wand nervously; and breaking the mental connection they had shared before she could feel the other woman's final decision on the event.

Jeanette carefully placed her wand down on the table between them to show that she wasn't a threat. Tina looked terrified, clearly she thought that she was in trouble over what had been seen. The healer smiled softly, and mimed zipping her own lips shut.

"I'm sorry to have worried you Tina, but I promise your secrets are yours." The healer assured her, "Could we keep going? That you could feel where I was means that we are making progress. Once we can find each other in your mind we can begin organizing your thoughts."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Who did you say was visiting?" Temperance asked as she stirred the stew she was preparing for dinner, "One of your old friends from the Aurors?"

Sirius sighed, "She was the Head Auror back then, she's the DMLE head now. Amelia Bones."

"Well that sounds exciting," She answered, noting the almost worried feeling she picked up from his tone, "What do you think it's about? I would not think that they will need to ask any more questions after you have been interviewed so many times"

"I think she's coming for more of a personal visit." Sirius responded neutrally before sighing again, "Before everything happened we were pretty close. She was one of the ones I would have thought would look into my case when I didn't get a trial. But we both know how that went down."

"Will you be alright?"

"I think so." Sirius nodded with a determined expression, "Thanks for cooking for us and agreeing to be there."

"It's no problem at all. The children love listening to you and Remus tell stories of Hogwarts. I'm sure if things become too heavy then they can get you to talk about turning an older student's hair colours or enchanting a stairwell to turn into a slide."

Sirius spent the rest of the early evening playing exploding snap with James and Marielle, he could have sworn he was better at this game before (or maybe the two kids were cheating) but the group still had a good time. Heathcliff giggled happily whenever the cards exploded and showered them with fireworks and tried to grab the sparkling lights as they fell to the floor.

In the other room, Temperance was worrying anew about this social call. Sirius didn't need someone trying to bring his old life back! Reminiscing with Remus to entertain the children was one thing; but she wasn't sure he was ready to try and step into that kind of lifestyle again, where everything would potentially leave him stressed out and remembering what had happened to him. She and Remus would need to make sure that Madame Bones didn't try and pull Sirius back in, the man was getting a touch of cabin fever from the lack of travel. The only times he'd really left the island since coming here a couple months ago were to answer questions from the Ministry and the time he went to see Harry's Quidditch game.

Meanwhile, Amelia Bones had taken the latter part of the afternoon off so that she could prepare herself, both mentally and physically, to once again see the man she had loved a decade ago. The earlier times when he had just been released didn't count, in her mind, Sirius had been too out-of-it to truly recognize her then; and she meant to make a good, new, first impression.

When the Potters were killed and Sirius blamed for their deaths, Amelia hadn't wanted to believe it. Unfortunately, her position as his senior trainer during Auror school rendered any opinion she had voiced about his potential innocence moot. No one wanted to hear from his "clearly distressed" supposed romantic partner.

In the end, the former Head Auror resigned herself to accepting that he was probably guilty, she couldn't have imagined Crouch being willing to subvert the justice system the way he had, and tried to put Sirius out of her mind. The recent deaths of her brother and his wife certainly contributed, her attention needed to be directed to taking care of her niece, Susan, since that happened.

Now, Amelia was desperately hoping that Sirius didn't hate her like she knew he probably should. Her visit today had multiple purposes, but at the forefront of her own mind was the chance to try and begin patching her relationship with one of her oldest friends. Sure, the Auror department was in desperate need of experienced personnel, and Sirius was one of the better ones; but Amelia was a realist, and Azkaban was likely to put a damper on any hope he might be fit to return to active duty right away. Paperwork would be the only thing in his immediate future in the department. At least that part of her visit wouldn't be as hard as convincing him of just how sorry she was that she had failed him all those years ago.

It never even occurred to her that Sirius might simply turn down her offer of a job. After all, who would say no to such a great career, especially in a time of relative peace when it was safe as well?

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle had no idea what they should do. A month before school started, their fathers had taken each of them into their studies and laid down the law. They were to do whatever they needed to keep Malfoy, and Nott as well to a lesser extent, happy and stress-free at Hogwarts. Neither of the two were very bright, but they knew how to follow instructions. Deciding that the easiest way to do what their fathers wanted was to just be nearby, they had taken to following Malfoy everywhere he went and doing whatever he asked of them. It was a good deal all-around, they would cut stuff up in Potions and rough up anyone who bothered Malfoy and they got passing grades without having to possess the smarts to actually pass.

Just now, Malfoy had turned back to them and told them, "I need to do this without you two, and I am not sure how long it will be. You should probably find something to do. If I am successful I might not be around as often."

And then he had gone into the library to try and find Potter, of all people, which left Crabbe and Goyle floundering without a leader for the moment.

Harry rolled his eyes when he saw Malfoy heading towards the table where he and Hermione were working on their most recent Potions essay, but quickly noted that the two that usually served as his shadows were absent this time. Realizing that the blonde wasn't stopping, Harry leaned over to Hermione and warned her that they had company incoming.

Hermione had time to move her essay away from her inkwell, she absolutely was not rewriting it because Malfoy felt like tossing ink (again, he had done that to Harry once back at the beginning of the year), before he made it to them. Hermione triggered her wrist holster to release her wand into her hand under the table as the boy stopped in front of their table. When Malfoy started to speak, only to stop multiple times and ultimately get a flustered look on his face, Hermione glanced at Harry in confusion.

"Can we help you?" Harry asked when he caught Hermione's look.

"Um, I just wanted to say…" Draco hesitated once more, "Just before the second term started, my father told me I should try and patch my relationships with you and Weasley."

"Good luck with that with what your father is doing to Sirius." Harry shot back.

"I don't know if that's him but…" Draco froze once more, "It does look like it. If so, he hasn't seen fit to tell me, but that isn't why I'm here."

Harry simply raised an eyebrow, indicating for Draco to continue, "My mother wanted me to as well. She said she wanted to try and reconnect with her cousin, your godfather Sirius Black."

"What? So she can rob him?" Hemione answered indignantly, "Your mum is the one who would keep his spot on the Wizengamot if your father's plan works out, which it won't."

"He was surprised on Valentine's Day." Harry muttered to himself as he turned to Hermione, "When the article came out, he looked just as blindsided as me. The only person I saw that looked like they knew it was coming was Cedric."

Now it was Draco's turn to raise an eyebrow, he hadn't expected Potter to have forgiven Diggory and be back on such a familial basis after everything that had happened. Especially after the last Quidditch match, Diggory looked furious at Potter as he was being led off the pitch.

"So you want to try again?" Harry asked for confirmation, "Fresh start, for your mum?"

Draco almost answered without thinking, in his mind there was no way a 'fresh start' was possible, but took a moment to consider, "Yeah, for my mother."

"Cool, then why don't you come to Flying Class this week?" Harry answered with a smirk.

"Huh?" Draco and Hermione responded at the same time, causing the pair to give each other an odd look.

"You tested out of flying, right?" Harry asked, getting a nod from the other boy, "I go every week that Gryffindor doesn't have a practise scheduled to help the people who are still learning. You're a really good flyer, you should come as well."

"And what, you want me to teach mud-muggleborns to ride their brooms properly?" Draco retorted, wincing at his slipup.

Harry frowned at Draco's almost-use of the slur, but decided that the frown was enough to start based on the other boy's contrite expression, "Well, I figured since you came in here alone that you didn't want to broadcast to all of your House that you weren't staying totally neutral anymore." He mused aloud, "And it isn't only muggleborn that need help flying, there are plenty of purebloods too. If you need to, I guess you could tell anyone that asks that you 'can't just trust a half-blood to teach the noble art of flying'." Harry tried to affect Malfoy's voice for the last bit, causing Hermione to snigger and smack him on the shoulder.

Draco knew he probably should have been offended at how Potter was imitating him, but he was too caught up in trying to understand the Boy-Who-Lived to truly care. This was such a Slytherin solution; no one in his House would question his motives, and it opened up the opportunity to explain a tentatively amicable acquaintanceship in the future. Draco Malfoy was struck with an odd thought, _did I really need to act like a Gryffindor if he was this much of a Slytherin?_

"Well?" Harry pressed.

"That could work Potter," Draco agreed, "I'm surprised you understand so much about how my House works, though. Weasley must have told you quite a bit."

"It didn't take much thought," Harry answered with a shrug as he raised his arm to show that Najash was there, "the Sorting Hat said I could have been in Slytherin anyways. One thing though; at least in private, it's Harry and Hermione."

"Right, last names are for authority and enemies." Draco answered, remembering what Weasley had said about such idiosyncrasies in muggle conversation, while also filing away Potter's claim that the Hat had thought of putting him in Slytherin, "If you insist… Harry."

"Are you sure about that?" Hermione asked Harry once Draco had walked away.

"Not really, no." He answered, "But I'm planning to write to Aunt Andi and see what she thinks."

"What made you listen at all? Just because he hasn't harassed us much recently doesn't mean that he isn't a stuck-up-"

"I don't think I've ever heard Draco talk about his mum before, just his father. Have you?" Harry interrupted to answer. Hermione thought about that for a moment before shaking her head, 'no.'

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Amelia regained her bearings quickly after the portkey deposited her, she had always been good with magical travel of all types, but stumbled back when she was greeted not by Sirius or his friend Remus, but by a young boy she vaguely remembered. Running back through her brain, she recalled a family of caretakers that were staying on the island where Pettigrew had been captured. Was Sirius staying there and not in his family home? Quickly looking around, she confirmed that that was the case.

"Madame Bones?" The boy asked politely.

"That is correct, I don't believe I got your name last time I was here."

"I'm James!" He said excitedly, "Padfoot is helping mum finish dinner, he said he'd-"

"Be right there, thanks kiddo." Sirius said as he exited the cottage onto the porch and patted James on the head before giving him a push towards the door, "Your mum wants you to get cleaned up while we wait."

Once the boy had gone inside, Sirius turned back to his guest, "How've you been?"

_How have you been? That was what he leads with?_ "It's been busy," she answered evenly, "I thought that we'd be meeting in Grimmauld Place or perhaps that muggle flat you had in London. I guess I should have checked the portkey, but I didn't even question it when Andromeda gave it to me. I must be getting sloppy."

"Well, the nice weather here has been a plus, and Temperance and the kids are great." Sirius replied with a shrug, "I've been staying in the other cottage and Moony's been coming and going too. Sorry for the confusion, they told me they decided to cut the floo off after the rat. The only floo connection left is a direct one to a friend of Petunia Dursley's in case of emergency."

Amelia noted the dark look that crossed Sirius' face as he spoke, "I can understand that, it must have been terrifying for the children."

The silence stretched for a few uncomfortable seconds before Temperance came out to check on them, "Why are you just standing around, Sirius? Offer her some tea."

While she followed behind the pair, Amelia took the chance to examine this new woman. She remembered her from the Pettigrew incident, but she hadn't spoken to her directly since the woman had apparently fainted during the altercation. Something about her seemed familiar, an older memory than Christmas past…

"You are Temperance Burke." She concluded aloud as they entered the family room.

Sirius and Temperance readjusted their stances in moments, with him standing between her and Amelia. Meanwhile, both of the older children in the room were suddenly on edge.

"I suppose I should take that as a 'yes'?" The DMLE Head asked with a frustrated sigh, "Miss Burke, your father reported you missing a few years ago. I am supposed to inform him of your whereabouts if they are discovered; and I believe he was also claiming custody of his grandchildren, saying that you lacked the means to support them properly." She crossed her arms and let her eyes drift between the two adults, "Could I get an explanation as to how a missing family happens to be the groundskeepers for the Potters?"

"James, go get mummy's special box." Temperance instructed before turning back to Amelia Bones, "My father cast me out of his family before any of my children were even born." She explained, "We were accepted as wards of the Potter Family, my father has no grounds to claim anything."

As she finished explaining, James returned with a wooden lockbox which he handed to his mother. Opening it, she gave the parchment detailing her family's status to Madame Bones for inspection.

"I'm sorry to have worried you ma'am." Amelia said after glancing over the document, "If it makes you feel better, I will _not _be telling Caractacus Burke where you are, only that you have been found and are not under his jurisdiction."

The way all three of the Burkes relaxed at that told her she had done the right thing. Temperance sighed and thanked her, "I didn't even know my father had done that. I'm so grateful to you for understanding."

"Did I miss something?" Remus asked from behind everyone, having just let himself in.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

_There is absolutely no reason that I couldn't take advantage of the situation to make my followers more useful_, was the thought that pushed Draco Malfoy to bring Crabbe and Goyle along with him to the next meeting of Flying Class. The two had been utterly confused at first, their "boss" didn't normally think about helping other students in any way; but after Draco pointed out to them that they were both atrocious flyers and only special notes from their fathers had excused them from the class in the first place, they had relented to go and work on their broomstick skills. Draco's good mood, brought on by thinking he had turned Potter's little game back on him, took a hit when he saw Potter and Granger each frown and put a Sickle in the hand of a girl he thought was named "Brown."

"Something wrong?" Draco asked when they got within earshot.

Harry shrugged, "Hermione and I figured you'd come by yourself, but Lavender said you had complained about how clumsy Crabbe and Goyle were and wouldn't miss the chance to bring them around for help."

"Told them all I was coming, did you Potter?"

"Of course he did." Lavender interjected, "Madam Hooch spends most of her time helping the _worst_ flyers, she never has time to give the rest of us pointers when we need them. Harry is sort of a professor's assistant, and he also makes sure none of us fall." She said the last with a blush, Harry had caught her once before when the broom she'd been riding bucked unexpectedly. "Even if it's _you_, several of us are excited that there'll be another good flyer around."

Draco glanced around, looking for the teacher so he knew who to mock later for not being able to fly after an entire fall term and half of spring. But when he did, he was surprised to find that three of the four students in need of "special attention" were purebloods! Madame Hooch was hovering near Longbottom (no surprise), and another Gryffindor who Draco knew to be a muggleborn, but Davis and Greengrass were there as well! From where Draco was, it looked like Davis was actually not incompetent, and was there to support her fellow Slytherin. So that wasn't three in four, but how could there be only _one_ muggleborn in three? Most purebloods learned how to ride at home!

Before Draco could make a disparaging comment about the people needing assistance, Harry stepped forward again, "We were hoping that everyone could be comfortable enough on brooms before the end of term that we could have a mock-Quidditch game or something. Do you want to help us with that?"

"A Gryffindor-Slytherin practise game for the first years?" Draco asked with an incredulous laugh.

"Actually we thought we would do a draft like with Muggle sports." Hermione answered, "Choose two captains, and have them alternate picking members for their team."

Draco and his two followers didn't know how to respond to that so he changed the subject, "What about Weasley? I thought he would be here."

"He's over there," Harry answered, pointing out the redhead, who was flying with two others that were not in need of any help, "He's not the most patient, so he doesn't help much. But I don't think that'll be a problem for you."

When Draco gave Harry a quizzical look at the comment, the other boy nodded his head to indicate the two behind him. Draco couldn't help but let out a laugh at that, "Alright Potter, let's see how bad your Gryffs are."

They weren't too bad, the Gryffindors at least. Much to Draco's frustration, though not to his surprise, Cabbe and Goyle were the most inept of the group in the air. The two spent five minutes continuously diving into the ground. Draco liked to think that he had learned a modicum of patience in dealing with these two. But he just couldn't figure out what they could possibly be doing _so wrong_. It must have started to show on his face that he was losing his patience, because he heard his name called from behind him. Potter had flown over to stick his nose in things.

"I think I know what their problem is." Harry explained when he pulled up beside his Slytherin counterpart, "Would you mind keeping an eye on the others. Everyone's fine, for the most part, but the school brooms aren't always reliable."

"Oh this should be good." Draco muttered to himself as he drifted to be closer to the others. When he looked back, Potter had taken Crabbe and Goyle to the ground and was mounting one of their brooms while his Nimbus floated a few feet away.

"Gregory Goyle, right? Mind if I call you Greg?" Harry asked as he dismounted his broom and stepped away from it towards the other boy, "Could I sit on that for a second? I think I see what's wrong."

Greg watched incredulously as Potter mounted the broom and flew forwards at a slow pace. While he was flying, Greg glanced over at Potter's Nimbus; _I bet Malfoy would get a kick out of me taking that for a joy ride._ He didn't get to act on his impulse before Potter returned and handed the broom back to him.

"When you sit on it, slide back a little." Harry explained, "That broom's balancing charms are off or something. The cushioning charm doesn't quite reach back far enough, but it's better than nose diving."

He couldn't think of anything to say, so Greg remounted the broom, sliding back like Potter said, and frowned when he felt himself slide past the edge of the cushioning charm. _That _was a little uncomfortable for someone as heavy as him. Putting his feet in place, which was awkward due to his position, the large boy began flying forward expecting to begin dipping down again, only to find that he was flying a level path. Vincent Crabbe had scoffed when Potter offered to help the pair, but seeing his friend actually flying softened him enough to listen when the Gryffindor asked to see his broom for a moment.

Draco groaned as he followed behind Granger's broom, which had bucked on her a couple times all on its own. Something he couldn't deny now that he was seeing it for himself. _Wasn't Hogwarts supposed to be the most premier wizarding school in the world?_ If that was the case, why was all of the equipment here so stupidly out of date? He resolved to speak with his father about this when he next went home. Obviously the reason that purebloods would be disadvantaged is that they were used to a certain standard! When he glanced back to Crabbe and Goyle he almost fell off his _own_ broom. That idiot was clearly edging towards Potter's Nimbus while the Gryffindor was away on the school broom! Granger shrieking when her broom unexpectedly dropped a foot drew his attention back.

Granger had pulled back on her broom in shock, ruining her balance and forcing Draco to actually _touch_ her to get her stable and moving forwards again. When he pulled his hand back he saw a couple of the other Slytherins looking at him in shock, so he made a show of wiping his hand on his robes. That was the last straw, though; as soon as this issue with Black was done, Draco was writing his father about this! When she was moving forward again, calling back a "thank you," he looked over to Potter and his two followers only to find both Crabbe and Goyle flying steadily around. Neither was doing anything fancy, but they were no longer slowly nose diving with every foot they moved forwards. Thank Merlin for small favours.

He wasn't sure when, exactly, it happened, but Draco found himself flying with most of the other Slytherins in his year. Even Crabbe and Goyle had managed to join the group, a fact which surprised literally no one more than it did the two of them. He couldn't call what he was having _fun, _Draco had a Cleansweep at home that was only a year old, but he was certainly _entertained._ The Slytherins were split between the very few who were working on actual aerial acrobatics in the hopes that they would make it onto the Quidditch team, and those who knew that was a pipe dream (so, mostly the girls since the current captain only allowed boys). Draco couldn't help but chuckle to himself when he saw Weasley and Zabini doing drills on the far side of the designated area for the class. They couldn't say two words to each other without an insult or hex being thrown, normally, but Quidditch apparently brought them together once a week.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Amelia had expected to be dining with Sirius and Remus, possibly Andromeda if she was particularly _un_lucky; but she wasn't prepared for a mother and her three children to be joining them, even preparing the meal. She hadn't said anything ahead of time other than that this was a social visit, but she had hoped Sirius would have let her talk to him in relative privacy. There was no such luck incoming, the adults spent the dinner recounting stories of their times together in Hogwarts. Amelia had been only a few years ahead of them, so she had her fair share of encounters with the pair before she graduated.

It wasn't unpleasant by any means, James and Marielle got on her nerves when they would demand that the Marauders go into detail whenever a prank came up in conversation; but she couldn't blame them too much. As the evening moved on, Amelia found herself relaxing in a way she hadn't in a long time. For ages, her life had been nothing but work and Susan; she hadn't really had time for friends, otherwise.

"So what are you planning to do once that obvious farce in the Wizengamot is dealt with?" Amelia asked once the food had been cleared away and Temperance had left to put her children to bed. "After tonight, I cannot imagine you not being cleared. If I didn't know any better I would have thought you had just been living here for the past ten years."

"Well, I didn't. Did I Amy?" Sirius asked, his demeanor much less cordial now that the children weren't around.

"Sirius, stay calm." Remus put a hand on his friend's shoulder as he turned a baleful look at the woman.

"I'm sorry. That must have come out wrong." Amelia backpedaled.

"Andi and Petunia have some plans they were working on before I was released." Sirius answered her previous question, "I'm intending to help them with whatever that is for the time being. Right now I'm just planning to make up for lost time with my godson."

Amelia frowned, that answer was rather forceful, which meant he wasn't likely to be persuaded into rejoining the Aurors. It was unfortunate, she was confident that Sirius could have gotten his old rank back pretty quickly while doing some paperwork to start to reacquaint himself with the procedures.

"You look like that wasn't the answer you were looking for." Remus mused aloud as he examined the stern witch's expression, "You don't think he's open to rejoining the Aurors do you?"

She sighed, "The thought had crossed my mind. I wrote it off at first because I didn't think Sirius would be in such a good state at this point." She turned to Sirius, "But we are always understaffed, so if you were willing…"

"No, probably never again." Sirius said with finality.

"And you shouldn't have to." Temperance added as she reentered the room, "You don't owe them anything."

"I know you were hoping that things would go back to the way they were," Sirius said, his voice breaking a little, "but they can't. I could never be an Auror again because I can't trust them, can't trust _you_, not like that. At least not right now. I understand that you had other obligations, Remus told me about your brother; I'm sorry, and I do want to renew our friendship. Merlin knows, there aren't but so many people I was close to that are still around… but it won't be the way it was."

While he spoke, Amelia noted that Mrs. Smith seemed conflicted on how to respond. The woman looked torn between pushing Remus to console him, or doing it herself. By the time he finished his statement, she made up her mind, moving forward and sliding a chair next to Sirius. After which, she pushed him down into it and said, "You sit and calm down, I'll go make some tea."

"I should go," Amelia said abruptly after Temperance had left the room, "I'll see myself out."

"Stay, please." Sirius called, "I meant what I said, all of it. I want to get to know you again. Stay and talk, just… not about that. Why don't you tell me about your niece, Susan right?" He grinned a little and let out one of his signature doglike laughs, "You know, for most of the time I was in St. Mungos getting better, I was scared I would let Harry down? I'm his godfather, but what do I know about kids, huh? I wasn't really godfather material before the Azkaban thing, we weren't ever thinking it would matter."

"What changed?" She couldn't stop herself from asking.

"A friend of his spent some time in the hospital while I was there, she pretty much insisted on getting to know me when she found out who I was." He chuckled at the memory, "Then, the kids here wouldn't leave me alone when they found out about Padfoot. I may not be godfather material, but I can settle for being the cool uncle."

Amelia grinned at that. Despite what he said, that was such a quintessentially _Sirius _attitude to take.

Much later that evening, Amelia Bones was deposited in front of her home, just outside the wards, by the Potter Isle portkey. Immediately upon landing, the portkey burned to ash. "Mistress Bonsey be's home!" The excited squeak of a house elf greeted her moments later, "Did youse have a good night?"

She smiled as she recalled the latter part of the night, "Better than I expected to be honest, thank you Livvy."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Potter!" Harry heard being called from a side corridor as he and Neville made their way down to the Great Hall for dinner. He knew the voice by this point, but was getting tired of being randomly called out like this.

With Neville following along with him just in case, Harry entered the first room down the hallway his name had come from to find three Slytherins, "Can I help you Draco?"

"How did you know about their brooms?" He returned, "There's no way a first year can sense the charms on a broom. Even those really old ones have spells on them to keep people from knowing how they work."

"I didn't do anything like that." Harry answered quickly, "I just rode the brooms and checked the balance."

"Where did you learn to do something like that, Potter?"

"I told you, it's Harry."

"Where did you learn to do that, _Harry_?" Draco returned, "I didn't even think to do so."

"Almost every non magical person learns to ride a bicycle." Harry explained.

"What does some muggle thing have to do with brooms?" Vincent Crabbe asked from behind Draco.

"There's no balancing charms on a bicycle, obviously, so you have to learn how to feel the balance." Harry explained, "I just did that. It took a second to adjust for forward-to-front, since bicycles only fall left or right, but once I did it was easy to figure out that I needed to be further back."

Eventually, Draco found his voice, glancing at Longbottom standing behind Potter, he cringed internally at having to be polite in front of the Gryffindors, "Sorry, I thought you were messing with me or something. My father does business with a broomstick company; so I was worried that you had some skill that let you bypass their security, or something of the like."

Harry couldn't resist smirking and chuckling to himself before he responded, "Is that all? I get that you don't want your House to get any wrong ideas, but you could have asked this out in the hall and no one would have thought anything of it, seriously."

When Potter and Longbottom made to continue on their way to dinner, they left a very confused Draco Malfoy behind. _Was Potter a Slytherin or a Gryffindor?_ Draco couldn't decide. Potter's idea to get to know each other through the guise of Flying Class was Slytherin; but then he brought Longbottom, of all people, into their confidence and took offense at stepping a few dozen feet out of the way to talk in private?


	34. Chapter 33: The Wizengamot

**AN: Next chapter should be posted by middle of next month, ideally it will be a couple like it was this time.**

The Wizengamot

"So how bad was having Malfoy back in a flying class?" Dudley joked.

"Better than expected." Hermione answered, "I may not trust him yet, but he didn't let me fall when that stupid stick tried to kill me again."

"You've just gotta hold on really tight." Dudley answered, "I can't wait for next year when I can bring _my _broom. So Harry, what did your Aunt Andi's letter say about Malfoy and that junk Cedric's father is doing?"

Harry looked around the library to make sure there was no one within eavesdropping distance before answering. Since the game against Hufflepuff, he found himself being "discreetly" followed by some of the upper year 'Puffs. His wand had only chirped a warning one time though, and he had no trouble simply dipping into a nearby hidden passage he'd learned from the Map and avoiding the impending confrontation.

This was frustrating, considering the fact that Cedric and Harry had publicly reconciled after the game. After that, Dudley had confided to Harry about the conversation he'd had with Cedric before the match. Harry was frustrated with his cousin at first, but ultimately agreed that he wasn't in the right state to hear it before. He had already been convinced that Cedric knew ahead of time and assumed the worst of it, he wouldn't have listened to an explanation like Dudley did.

"She said that she knew for a fact that Mister Malfoy is the one behind the thing at the Wizengamot, but she wants us to try and get along with Draco anyways." Harry lowered his voice further, "She said that Draco's mum was the one who told her, she said she was trying to get closer to her family and asked Aunt Andi about her daughter and everything."

"So he's caught between his parents?" Hermione asked for clarification.

"That sucks," Dudley drawled, "I can't believe I'm feeling sorry for Draco Malfoy."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"You may not have much more time before the presentation of your assessment before the Wizengamot but, in my expert opinion Lord Black, you are more than well enough to hold a position in our society." Healer Withering spoke with mechanical efficiency as a Dicto-Quill recorded the final official meeting between healer and patient before he was scheduled to appear before the Wizengamot. Sirius, sitting in front of her, just looked bored.

"Well," Jeanette said as she stopped her quill and rolled up her parchment, "that is the official documentation done. Is there anything you want to ask me before I go? You will only need three sessions with the other healer over the next ten days, if you are worried about that."

"Nope," Sirius answered, seeming unconcerning, "the only thing I'm worried about is getting this taken care of so I can spend some time with Harry when they come home."

"I can tell that you are worried, Sirius." The Healer returned, "If you don't want to talk about it right now you don't have to, obviously, I just want to make sure that you are okay."

"I'll be fine," Sirius assured her, "It's just… the closer we get to it, the more I'm worried about actually spending time with Harry. That I'll mess it up somehow."

"That's completely understandable." She replied, "But you just need to remember that you aren't going to be completely new to being around children his age."

Sirius grinned at that. Tina was coming over later and was going to work with James, Marielle, and him on muggle football. He was tentatively hopeful that they would be able to play a game of it over Easter.

"And remember to avoid changing into your animagus form for any length of time, and not alone." Healer Withering added, "Letting yourself go to the animal before you are ready is probably the fastest way to backslide"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Vernon frowned when Petunia reentered the house with the first part of her "Ms. Acacia" disguise; her muddy-red hair was now dyed black with non magical dye. Her plan was to also curl her hair haphazardly to look more like one of Harry's great-aunts and wear colour-contacts to help sell the "distant relation of the Potters" angle; and she recently purchased a hideously-gaudy (in his opinion) witch's robe.

"Are you sure this is necessary?" He asked after she had taken off her coat and sat down, "I don't like not being able to go with you. It won't be like Hogwarts, you'll be outnumbered there."

"Outnumbered by law enforcement." Petunia returned, "I'll be fine, and this disguise will convince the people who are still looking for Ms. Acacia that she's a real person."

"And what's stopping someone like Skeeter from digging and learning about your alias? Hmm?"

"That's why Gringotts filed everything officially." Petunia shook her head in amazement at the inane allowances in magical society, "The Ministry will accept 'Peony Acacia' as my name, no questions asked and no links to my real name to be followed."

"How can that be safe?" Vernon muttered to himself as he tried to wrap his head around the implications of that.

"Well, it's magic. The DMLE is allowed to see through it if they are investigating either name." Petunia explained. "So it isn't like I could commit a crime as Ms. Acacia and then just lose the alias completely."

As she was explaining, the telephone rang, so Petunia rose to answer it. After a few minutes, she returned to the family room with a wide smile on her face, "That was Andromeda, she said that her daughter will have time on the day of the presentation and would be happy to help me with my makeup and curling my hair properly."

"Well that will be nice," Vernon agreed, recalling her shape-changing abilities, "I haven't seen or heard of the girl since before Christmas, besides Andromeda offering to ask her about this. I don't mean to be rude though, but… is she actually the best to ask for that kind of help? I would think with her abilities she wouldn't be very used to normal things like that."

"Andromeda assured me that she is rather good with makeup and cosmetics." Petunia replied, "Changing her shape takes concentration, so she still uses makeup to keep from having to do that sort of thing herself. If she can do a blush and lipstick that matches bubblegum-pink, or even _purple_, hair then I think she can help me to just look less like myself."

Vernon snorted at the image of the Auror trainee sporting royal purple locks, "I suppose that works."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Thank you for letting me use your floo Arabella." Petunia said as she prepared to travel to Professor Mcgonagall's office after donning her magical attire.

"Oh think nothing of it, Petunia. I'm happy to help. All this cloak-and-dagger makes me feel like I'm back helping the Order." The other squib answered happily as she held out the jar of powder, "Say hello to Harry and Dudley for me."

Petunia didn't dwell on what she meant by "The Order" and stepped through to floo after calling out her destination and the password. While she brushed the soot off her clothes, Professor Mcgonagall was worriedly trying to figure out who was in front of her. She had been expecting someone; but this person could pass for James Potter's cousin, not Petunia Dursley.

Seeing her friend's worry, Petunia spoke up, "I'm sorry for the confusion, Minerva, allow me to introduce myself." the other woman's eyes widened in recognition, "_Ms._ Peony Acacia."

It took a moment, but the stern professor's expression broke and she began laughing, "Oh my! I know you said you would look a little different, but I completely didn't recognize you! I must say, you look rather good in those robes. That is definitely your colour."

"Yes well, that is the plan; and thank you, Dora Tonks helped me match the blush and lipstick." Petunia answered with a glance down at the purplish-pink robes, the same colour as her favorite type of Peony flower, before shaking her head to get back in character, "I need to keep things straight, and Rita Skeeter will likely be at this meeting. She's the only person I'm truly worried about, we spoke in close proximity for quite a while during that interview."

"Well, I doubt that will be a problem," Minerva assured her as she prepared tea, "though the woman might try and squeeze an interview out of the elusive _Ms_. Acacia. Harry and Dudley should be here soon, I told them to report to my office after breakfast."

The conversation the pair shared was, in Petunia's opinion, _most _illuminating. Hermione had told her that Harry assisted in the hazing of Cedric Diggory, but she hadn't been told just what was done. Changing hair colour could be construed as funny by some; but hexing the boy's clothes to smell, or slipping a potion to him that makes him dance randomly, were certainly too much.

Harry and Dudley knocked on the door to Mcgonagall's office and entered to find the professor sharing tea with a woman that looked alarmingly familiar. The woman looked up from the parchment she was holding and fixed the pair with a stern gaze.

"I'm quite sure that both of you can get better marks than these." Petunia said, snapping the boys back to reality, "Harry, History might be boring, but it is still important. Dudley, did you know that Potions is required to be an Auror? The professor here was just telling me about the requirements for the things you wanted to do."

"Snape doesn't grade fair." Dudley mumbled while Harry whined, "But he's _so boring_."

Petunia's trademark raised eyebrow had the pair stammering for more excuses, "I have been told about the less-than-stellar instruction in Potions, but Professor Mcgonagall assures me that you could achieve a higher mark if you put more effort in. And Harry, I know it is boring; you still need to know your history. I hope you would prefer that Andromeda taught you new and interesting things this summer, and not simply a revision of your first year syllabus."

While the children gaped like fish, Petunia smirked and continued, "Anyway, how have you been dears? Are you excited for a break?"

Harry and Dudley let out the breath they were holding and relaxed, "I almost didn't recognize you mum." Dudley said.

"That is the point, so thank you." She answered with a hug, "I'm sorry, but we can't dawdle. Harry and I need to head to the Ministry and we have to pick up Remus from the Leaky Cauldron first. I'll see you when you get off the train this afternoon Duddykins."

"Mister Potter," Professor Mcgonagall interrupted as he and Petunia were preparing to floo out, "I don't believe that the Ministry check-in desk will take kindly to your familiar being with you."

Harry sheepishly stepped over to her desk and held his hand out for Najash to slither onto it off his arm. Petunia suppressed a gasp when she saw the snake coiled up with his head raised and examining his surroundings. She had been warned that the serpent would be getting bigger due to the magic of Hogwarts, but the thing was at least half-again longer than in September! If her eyes didn't deceive her, then the kingsnake was also slightly thicker than she remembered. She was regretting not asking Harry about this back during Christmas now, and was unsure how she could have not noticed the thing getting bigger then.

"You had better have that shrinking spell down by the end of school." Petunia murmured.

"Oh, I've got it already!" Harry answered happily, "Can I show her Professor?"

"Yeah, it would be easier for me to carry him around if he was smaller, too." Dudley added.

After an affirmative from the Professor, Harry hissed instructions to Najash about hiding with Dudley until they could meet back up while he opened the bond between them. It only took a few seconds now, but Harry liked to take his time when he was actually going to be _using _the bond; he was still worried about doing something incorrectly and hurting his friend. Upon confirming to himself that the bond was solid, Harry spoke the spell while twisting his wand counter-clockwise and grinned as his familiar slowly shrank in size and girth until he was back to the size he was at the start of the school year. When Harry turned back to the others, though, he found himself confronted with wide eyes on startled faces.

"I didn't know you could cast spells in parseltongue." Dudley said after a moment.

Harry covered his mouth, _I said that in parseltongue? How?_ "Oops? I guess I forgot to stop Speaking after I was done telling Najash what was going to happen."

"I must admit, I didn't know that could be done either." Professor Mcgonagall added, "However, casting spells in other languages is certainly possible. The reason we do not simply use common English words for our spellcasting is to minimize the risk of accidentally casting when we are simply speaking with emotion; and also to preserve the mystique of it all, I suppose. The Arithmancy of incantation would have left some spells sounding silly if they were in our own tongue. Our spells are based in Latin, and a little Greek, but witches and wizards from countries where those are not the root language will obviously use a different one. I suppose parseltongue _is _still a language, so using it to incant spells must be possible."

"I'm sure that you and Hermione will be investigating this over the break, Harry," Petunia interjected, "but we truly do need to go."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

After 'Ms. Acacia' left with Harry, Professor Mcgonagall sent Dudley to his room to pack before the carriages took the children to the Express for Spring Break. With the boy on his way, the professor began to make her way to the Headmaster's Office; prior to the children joining them, Petunia had given her a letter to deliver to Albus since Hedwig wasn't available the night before. She wasn't sure what was contained in the letter, but by the glint she saw in the woman's eyes when she handed it over told her that the Headmaster would not be happy.

"Ah, Minerva!" Dumbledore smiled as his Deputy entered his office, "I was just going to see you. Did you use your floo earlier?" After he'd been blindsided by Petunia Dursley on Halloween, Albus had taken his duty to monitor the use of staff floos much more seriously, "I knew you were planning to go meet some of next year's muggleborn parents after the Express left, but-"

"One of my students was taken from school early to attend the Wizengamot meeting." She interrupted him, pressing on when she thought he was going to object to allowing such, "Not that it is any of your business how my student's guardians wish to contact them. That reminds me, I was asked to deliver this to you, the sender found themselves without an owl and I offered to deliver it."

Albus frowned when he looked at the address on the muggle envelope, he recognized the handwriting as that of Petunia Dursley. Sitting back down, he opened it and began reading the letter, growing frustrated as he did.

"Nothing upsetting, I hope?" Minerva asked, seeing the frustration and anger briefly flash on the Headmaster's face. His eyes darted up to her, before going back to finish the note.

Albus sighed once he finished reading before answering, "It would appear that there was a source of Galleons that I forgot about, and the goblins have found it. Mrs. Dursley would like to meet with me over the break to discuss things."

"Well, good luck with that Headmaster. I need to go check on my Lions before they head down to the carriages." With that, she turned and let herself out of the office before her expression broke into a smile. She wasn't sure what Petunia's account manager had found, but Albus was clearly mad about it.

As she made her way to Gryffindor Tower, she took another look at her list of families to visit today. _Three in total,_ she confirmed, _that should only take a couple hours in all. I think I'll just go alphabetically and start with 'Creevey'._

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I said, 'wand please'." The wizard sitting at the checkpoint said with a bored expression as he held out his hand to the black haired woman.

"I'm afraid that is impossible, I do not have one." She replied, fighting to keep the annoyance out of her voice. The man had barely glanced up from his magazine at any of them.

"Squib Welfare Office is that way." He answered, dismissively pointing to the far side of the Atrium.

"I did not ask you for directions, sir, I am here to attend the Wizengamot meeting."

The man sighed as though this was the greatest imposition he had ever dealt with, "I will need to perform a spell to verify you aren't carrying any hidden wands on you." After receiving an affirmative nod, he waved his wand over her while chanting, "Alright ma'am, please proceed."

He frowned when he noticed that the woman waited just inside the checkpoint, but continued, "Next please, name, wand, and reason for visit!"

"Harry Potter, I'm here for the Wizengamot meeting."

_That _elicited a reaction, the man on duty dropped his magazine as his head snapped up to look at the Boy-Who-Lived, his eyes locking onto the small bit of scar poking from under Harry's hairline, "By Merlin, it really is!" He said excitedly before noting a small bruise on the boy's cheek as he took the offered wand, "Everything alright Mister Potter?"

"I hate floo travel." Harry answered glumly, he had rocketed out of the Leaky Cauldron's floo and knocked down a waitress who was carrying meat pies. Then, he tripped upon coming out of the floo at the Ministry and landed face first. Moony fixed his glasses again for him, and healed his nose, but he wasn't the greatest at healing magic.

"I understand sir, I know a guy who always comes out on his back. Now he puts a cushioning charm on every time he goes through." He returned before placing Harry's wand on his scale, "Eleven inches, Holly and Phoenix feather? Been in use for less than a year?"

"Yes sir." Harry said as he took the wand back, thankful for Professor Mcgonagall's warning at breakfast about his wand being examined at the checkpoint. If he had his Redwood wand then someone who knew about wandlore could figure out that he was a parselmouth.

Once Harry was on the other side of the checkpoint the man at the desk turned to him, ignoring Remus who was still waiting to get in, and asked, "Could I get an autograph, sir? I'm a huge fan!"

In reply, Harry backed into his Aunt and took her hand, frowning as he did, "It wouldn't feel right, I haven't done anything worth having fans, sir." The desk guard noted the protective way that the woman, _Ms. Acacia_ if he recalled correctly, stood slightly in front of the Boy-Who-Lived and realized his error. Looking like he was suddenly constipated, he quickly apologized and turned to ask for the next in line.

Shortly, Remus joined them with a smirk on his face, "That man looked like you conjured a lemon in his mouth." He said to Harry as they laughed and made their way to the visitor's section of the Wizengamot chambers before he sneezed and pinched his nose to prevent another.

"Something wrong Uncle Moony?"

"Ms. Acacia stopped by Mrs. Figg's house." He answered, "The cat smell lingers for ages."

The Ministry interior was a hectic mess of flying paper and scrambling secretaries, Harry personally thought that they could have done with wider corridors or something. There was barely room for three people to walk side-by-side through most; and everyone who _was_ there was either in way too much of a hurry to be running around with parchment and inkwells, or in far too expensive clothes to be risking ink spilling on their robes.

When he asked, Remus explained to him that the deeper one went, with the exception of the Atrium, the nicer things tended to be. He led them to an elevator, which they shared with at least a dozen parchment airplanes that were enchanted to actually fly and a secretary who laughed and said that the airplane notes were much less messy than owls flying about inside the building.

The room where the Wizengamot met was a big, round, auditorium-like chamber with a domed ceiling. Harry noted that there were, perhaps, a hundred personal alcoves situated beneath the visitors section that served as the seating for the Wizengamot itself. Knowing that Hermione would be quizzing him on it as soon as they saw each other again, Harry took in everything he could see while he asked Remus about the placements of different Houses, particularly Diggory, Malfoy, and Potter.

Harry smiled when he saw that Neville's Gran was going to be standing in as Chief Witch due to Dumbledore's absence. He knew that the Headmaster had stepped down for the meeting due to his 'friendship' with Sirius constituting a conflict of interest, but Harry was still baffled as to how Dumbledore had the time to do all the work involved in all of his various titles.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Madame," a voice interrupted Augusta Longbottom as she began the opening statements, causing Harry to look around for the source and find a man standing where Remus had told him the Diggory seat was, "but I must protest the attendance of dark creatures at this meeting!" He thrust his finger in the direction of Remus in the audience. "Werewolves are classified as dangerous creatures and should not be allowed to walk about the Ministry building."

"Mister Diggory," Madame Longbottom's voice wasn't as loud as Diggory's, but somehow carried more physical weight than he could ever hope to muster, "the full moon is tomorrow night. It is not, and has never been, illegal for a werewolf to attend sessions on days that are not marked by the full moon. Please refrain from interrupting me in the future."

While the Chief Witch finished her opening announcements, which were mostly pointless because this session had only a few reasons for being called and there was going to be a proper session the next evening, Lucius Malfoy kept his attention on the mongrel, Lupin. Seeing the Potter brat next to him was a surprise, but not completely unexpected; but the woman sitting with them drew his attention. She had the trademark Potter untameable black hair and her expression said that she clearly thought little of the proceedings while still paying attention. _If only you were not a squib, Ms. Acacia_, he thought as he watched her demeanor, _you might have been a Potter my master allowed to live._

Harry didn't think that the Wizengamot was very interesting. There was a lot of pomp and ceremony around everything; they took an hour to induct four heirs into their seats because it seemed _everyone_ had to say something about each, whether positive or negative, before they could move on to the next. He started paying attention again when Healer Withering gave her report, which was followed by another mind healer that Harry didn't know Sirius had seen giving their own statement about Sirius' competence. Neither healer left any doubt that Sirius was far better off than anyone having suffered so long in Azkaban had any right to be, and is certainly competent enough to take on his role as Lord Black.

Mister Diggory and Lord Nott both asked extensive questions of the mind healers after their reports were given. Asking about such things as night terrors and depression, the pair tried to paint Sirius as potentially vindictive against the Ministry, particularly the justice system and Azkaban prison itself. Harry's opinion of both men plummeted even further as they argued what he considered to be nonsense; and from the look his aunt had, she agreed with him. Meanwhile, Remus appeared worried; which reminded Harry and Petunia that this pontificating can mean something, likely with money moving around in the background.

When Sirius finally came out, himself, and stepped forward to address the Wizengamot, Harry sat up straighter to get a better view. Sirius looked stable and strong as he walked, which warmed his godson's heart, the resulting smile from which caused the animagus to grin and wave.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The hour-and-a-half that he spent in the waiting room while he prepared to stand in front of the Wizengamot contained some of the most stressful and long minutes in Sirius Black's life. He knew that it was going to take a while, there were a few heirs being confirmed to their seats that would consume a gratuitous amount of time. He heard the shift in the volume of sounds coming from the chamber that signaled the beginning of his two mind healers presenting their conclusions.

As he waited, he started getting the jitters and paced back-and-forth. He had a general idea of how long the two healers' statements should have taken, and it was well past that point by now. His pacing worked out in his favour, as he was loosened up and relaxed by the time he was actually called to stand before the 'Gamot himself. Though his body wasn't tense, he was still screaming internally; Sirius Black had always hated politics.

Keeping his frustration off his face with his recovering Occlumency abilities, Sirius walked with purpose to the seat provided for him and took it. As he scanned the Wizengamot and visitors, he found Harry sitting with Remus and a woman he didn't recognize. Harry's face lit up when their eyes met, and Sirius couldn't resist a grin and wave.

"Sirius Black, Heir Apparent of the Ancient and Noble House of Black," Madame Longbottom drew his attention away from his godson as she regained command of the Chamber, "we have heard statements from two Mind Healers employed by St. Mungo's Hospital concerning your well being following your unjust imprisonment. At this time, there are some members of this body that wish to ask a few, final, questions concerning the events that transpired in nineteen eighty-one. There are also a few who wish to ask questions of you in this forum that do not pertain to that event. Unless the Department of Law Enforcement says otherwise, you are free to refuse to answer any question you feel violates your privacy unnecessarily."

It was apparent from her face that the words left a foul taste in her mouth, Madame Longbottom was none too pleased at the conduct of her peers towards Sirius. Insisting on asking questions about the deaths of the Potters was obviously meant to try and draw an emotional response out of him. She kept any distaste out of her tone as she continued, "Due to the number of different Lords and Heads of House that have queries, we have consolidated the list of questions and will have a Ministry representative ask them." Sirius nodded, that had been decided at the previous 'Gamot meeting; those who wanted to ask questions had been told to submit them through the DMLE, "After this questioning is complete, and any new questions brought up are answered, the Wizengamot will vote whether to intercede in the succession of the Ancient and Noble House of Black. Do you understand, and is this acceptable to you?"

"That's fine, Madame Longbottom." He replied, "Who's asking the questions?"

"It was decided that Head Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt would be the best to ask the questions. Please understand that this in no way implies that you are suspected of anything illegal. It is merely a convenience." The Chief Witch quickly added the explanation upon seeing Sirius' eyes widen, of course he would be suspicious since it was usually a court scribe that would read the questions in this situation, "Due to the sensitive nature of some questions, as well as a need to differentiate what is truly need-to-know, it was felt that having the DMLE perform the questioning would expedite the proceedings."

Most of the questions were fairly benign, 'are you aware of any other unknown Death Eaters who escaped justice like Peter Pettigrew?' and 'who suggested the use of the Fidelius Charm?' were easily answered. But then a question from Lord Crouch threw him for a moment.

"Whose idea was it to change secret keepers from you to Peter Pettigrew?" Kingsley Shacklebolt read the question, wincing internally as he already knew the answer.

Sirius paled and froze momentarily, before answering with a slightly less-sure voice, "It was me. I thought it would be a hilarious prank to play on You-Know-Who, and I regret suggesting the switch to James every single day."

Having been one of the ones to question Sirius originally, and possessing a thourough knowledge of the orringal miscarriage of justice, Kingsley understood the likely reason behind that question and decided to use his authority to add a follow-up, "Heir Black, would that be why, when you were found at the scene of what is now known to be Petigrew's attack upon those muggles, you were laughing and claiming that it was your fault the Potters were dead?"

"That's correct." He answered, "I'd just come from Godric's Hollow, seen James and Lily's bodies. I'll admit that I wasn't entirely in my right mind at the time."

"Completely understandable, sir." Kingsley assured him, "The next question comes from Lord Nott: Do you know if, and if so, why, the Potters were attacked that Halloween?"

"Dumbledore approached James and Lily, saying that they were being targeted because they had escaped from You-Know-Who, himself, three times at that point without getting seriously hurt." Sirius was glad he had thought to prepare answers for if he was asked about the Prophecy or Harry's home life, even if talking about his friends like this was extremely uncomfortable, "Since I only knew of two other people, another couple, that could claim such, I never asked if there was anything deeper."

There were several other questions about the events surrounding the deaths of the Potters. In particular, there were more than a few questions about the protections in place at Godric's Hollow. The Fidelius Charm was extremely esoteric though, and Sirius wasn't able to answer many specific questions about the working and casting of the charm outside of his temporary role as Secret Keeper. That there were no other wards in place at all could not be explained by Sirius; but thankfully the Head of one of the neutral Houses aligned with House Greengrass was a curse breaker earlier in his life, he described the limitations of the otherwise incredible protective ward. The Fidelius Charm masked the location it protected from even the other wards that were supposed to be around it. According to him, only extremely ancient wards would have held after the Fidelius was in place, and they would have rapidly weakened as they fought to continue to "remember" what it was they were meant to be protecting.

"I would assume," Lord Fawley concluded, "that the reason the Potters chose to hide in their cottage in Godric's Hollow was to avoid the risk of completely erasing whatever traditional wards are around Potter Manor. The Fidelius is powerful, but most inconvenient."

Sirius nodded his thanks to the man, both for his input and because he remembered the name 'Fawley' from St. Mungo's, "Thank you for explaining, Lord Fawley. This is twice now, that your family has aided me since I was released from Azkaban. Please accept my thanks for your brother's help as well." He was the other healer that helped take care of Tina, and that was _just _enough incentive for Sirius to use proper language when addressing his brother and Head of House.

The remaining inquiries weren't a problem until Amos Diggory decided to all but start a riot when Augusta Longbottom called for any 'final questions or comments.' Sirius had been doing his best to keep an eye on the various Lords and Heads of the Wizengamot to see who had formed up into this coalition against him. It spread through the Light, Dark, and Neutral families; but outside the Dark families he seemed to only have to worry about those who stayed out of personal politics. Those who actually knew the Potters appeared to have come around and sided with him and Andromeda. Andi probably had a lot to do with that, she had worked tirelessly in reaching out to allies of the Potter family to ensure that they knew the truth. Unfortunately, his scanning of the Chamber meant that Sirius didn't see the furious and desperate look on Diggory's face before his questions began.

"I am interested to know how Sirius came into the care of Healer Withering." Amos stated once he had been addressed, "To ensure that there was no favouritism in the content of the reports given."

Across the aisle, Lucius Malfoy started sweating. Diggory had almost crossed the line multiple times today in his crusade against Black, Potter, and Lupin. The fool had even had the gall to interrupt the Chief Witch _just_ to renege on his agreement to ignore the werewolf! Crouch's attempt to discredit Black's mental stability would have been more effective if the situation had been different, but no one could fault the man for losing his mind for a time after what happened that night; in the given context, it simply made Black look even more sympathetic!

"It's my understanding that Andromeda Tonks, the Potter Regent, was the one who reached out to her." Sirius answered, unsure where Diggory could be going with this.

"And the second mind healer? Healer Lethel?" Amos pressed, indicating to Madame Longbottom that he had another follow-up question.

"Contacted by Healer Withering." Sirius replied.

"Hmm." Amos mused aloud, "So we are trusting your competence and ability to sit in one of the oldest and most important seats in the Wizengamot to the word of your cousin's friend, and _her_ friend? Shouldn't you have been examined by a neutral, unrelated healer to preserve the integrity of the exercise?"

_Fool! _Lucius thought to himself as he watched Diggory dig himself a hole, _Thank Merlin I convinced Fudge to give Umbridge something else to do today!_ That woman was probably the only one who could make this worse.

"I must protest what Mister Diggory is implying!" Andromeda shouted from the Potter seat, "I would never pervert the healing process in such a way!"

"So you say," Lord Nott interjected; seeing where Amos was going with his questions, but failing to see the growing look of fear and panic on the face of his partner, Lord Malfoy, "but you certainly have much to gain from doing so. It is no secret that if your cousin were actually confirmed as Head of House then you would be brought back into the Black family."

Several seats over, Lucius Malfoy was calculating in his head when the most effective time to intercede would be. He couldn't allow this to go on, and he found his moment when Nott finished his statement, "I move that a mind healer who is not related to Andromeda Tonks through her work in any way be called in to perform an examination. Failing that I cannot, in good conscience, trust that we are not being deceived."

"Point of Order!" Lucius shouted, drowning out Andromeda's further protests as she turned, confused, to face him, "Is it not true that medical statements by foreign healers are not admissible in inquiries made by the Wizengamot?"

The Chief Witch gestured for the scribe to search for said legislation, "That is correct, My Lord." He answered after a minute to find the requested law, "By decree of the Wizengamot, only medical records and statements made by a healer registered at St. Mungo's may be presented before this body for official purposes."

"I see." Lucius drawled, "Mister Diggory, is it your intention to establish a precedent where any Lord or Head of the Wizengamot could be forcibly removed by unanswerable accusations of mental incompetence?" Amos gaped at him in confusion, as did many others, but several of the smarter Lords understood what he meant and started shouting. To maintain control, Lucius raised his voice and continued, "You are demanding an impossible standard! If only a healer who has no previous connections, whatsoever, is acceptable then every single member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight is in danger. How many of us have a healer in our extended family? Lord Nott, you have a second cousin employed at St. Mungo's, how long before that relation strips _you _of your chance to defend yourself?"

The change in the 'Gamot was immediate. Where before there was a sizable group of Family Heads that were against Sirius on pure principle due to his name, now most of the chamber was united against Diggory. It took several minutes for the Chief Witch to reestablish order, as several Lords began shouting over each other in an attempt to be the one that ridiculed Amos the loudest.

Once things had finally quieted, Amos bowed his head in submission and said, "I withdraw my statements and accusations." Marking the end of Sirius' Competency Hearing.

Augusta Longbottom called for the vote, by way of lifting a lighted wand, over whether there was sufficient need for the Wizengamot to interfere with the succession of the House of Black. Fully eighty percent of the gathered body agreed that there was no need, and so Sirius was allowed to take his seat from Narcissa Malfoy. With no other items on the day's docket, the meeting was called once Sirius had been accepted by the magic of his Seat. His delayed Headship would be officially ratified that afternoon between the Ministry and Gringotts.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Oh Merlin it's so good to see you again pup!" Sirius fought not to cry as he held his godson again for the first time since they met in the hospital. Looking up at the two adults with Harry, Sirius asked the next logical question, "Who's your friend here?" He asked, indicating Petunia without recognizing her.

"Oh? You haven't heard of the elusive Peony Acacia; the magical guardian of the Boy-Who-Lived?" Came a voice to interrupt the reunion, "Congratulations are in order, I suppose, Lord Black." The group turned to see Lucius Malfoy approaching them with his wife following closely behind, her eyes on Sirius the whole time.

"Thank you, Lord Malfoy." Sirius answered, his face pinching in consternation before changing his gaze to his cousin, the new woman was obviously a friend and no cause for worry, "Cissi, how have you been?"

"I have been well, Sirius. Thank you." She stepped out from behind her husband as she greeted him.

While the Black cousins were speaking, Lucius took the opportunity to study Peony Acacia in greater detail. Up close, there was something distinctly _un_-Potter-like about her that he wrote off as her being a squib and not a proper witch. He had always felt he possessed a sense for such things, even without any evidence to back up such beliefs.

"Lord Malfoy, I presume?" The woman asked, daintily holding out her hand to him. Caught in public with several passersby watching, Lucius was compelled to take her hand in greeting. "I have heard from Harry how he and your son have been getting along much better in school this term; I'm so glad they were able to reconcile some of their differences, don't you agree?"

"O-of course," He answered; taken aback at being addressed so casually, but unsure just how much clout this woman had. After all, she had eluded even Albus Dumbledore until now, hadn't she? "I have drilled into Draco's head for years that his time at Hogwarts is meant to be used to form connections with others in our society."

"Something Harry is learning as well." Ms. Acacia smiled and nodded as she noticed the antsy look her nephew was getting, "It was nice to meet you, Lord Malfoy, but we have an appointment to keep with Andromeda. Something about a bill that Mister Weasley is working on."

She gathered Sirius from his conversation and allowed Remus to lead them to the waiting room set aside for the Potter family, smirking as she turned around, having seen the look of consternation on Malfoy's face. She knew from Andromeda that the Malfoys were one of the Families most against the legislation that Arthur Weasley was pushing for due to having a history of collecting items enchanted with Dark magic.

Tea in the Potter waiting room was a pleasant affair. When Ms. Acacia revealed who she really was to Sirius, he barked a laugh so loud that Andromeda had to poke her head into the corridor and let the Auror on duty know that everything was fine. After that, Sirius and Harry spent almost the entire time chatting away. Harry was especially interested in the methods Healer Withering had used; and the idea of Occlumency appealed to him quite a bit.

"No need to worry about that, pup." Sirius laughed, "You're gonna have to work on Occlumency at least a little if you actually want to be Lord Potter when you come of age. It'll help keep your Aunt safe too. It obviously isn't legal to read people's minds without permission, particularly a minor's; but Legilimency is really rare, and tends to run in older families, so the burden of proof is on the victim."

"And I bet that's really hard to prove, isn't it?" Harry felt he already knew the answer.

"Pretty much impossible."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"It isn't fair!" Harry pouted as he, Dudley, and his Aunt walked back to their home from Mrs. Figg's after changing back into non magical clothes, "Why am I the only one who can't use the floo properly?"

"Perhaps you can ask Remus or Sirius about it when we see them next." Petunia answered, opening the front door.

"You've got a letter, Pet." Vernon called from the family room as soon as they walked in, "It's from Professor Mcgonagall."

While the boys put their things away in their rooms, Petunia opened and read the letter, a frown forming as she did. The Professor wanted to meet with her first thing tomorrow morning, about something that she said was a matter of life-and-death.


	35. Chapter 34: Inexcusable Rudeness

Inexcusable Rudeness

Dudley huffed as he finally got both his and Harry's trunks overhead in the train compartment that he and Hermione had claimed for the ride home.

"I have no idea how Harry is so comfortable carrying you around," he muttered as he held his arm such that he could see Najash hiding in his sleeve, "I keep thinking I'm gonna bump you against something and hurt you."

He groaned when he heard Hermione snickering behind him, "I doubt you could do better with two trunks."

"I offered to help." She retorted, Hedwig hooted at him from her cage above them, "See, even she thinks you should have let me."

"Then you can get your own trunk."

"No problem." she answered with a smirk, flicking out her wand and levitating her trunk into position in the overhead with a softly incanted "Wingardium Leviosa." When she looked back, Dudley had a sour look on his face, "Are you a wizard or not?" She chided, "We both know we can still use magic on the train."

Neville and Justin joined them just before the train departed. They had wondered where Neville was since they boarded the carriages to the train platform; but Justin was a surprise to see, as they were sure he wouldn't have been let out of the Hospital Wing yet after magically exhausting himself the night before.

"Sorry I missed you guys at the carriages," Neville explained his tardiness, "Professor Sprout wanted to ask me some questions about my family's gardens after installing that muggle irrigation system, now that it's had some time."

"Oh! How is it?" Hermione asked excitedly, "Aunt Petunia says that the greenhouses on the Isle are doing well."

While the Gryffindors talked about plants, Dudley checked on his own Housemate. Justin still sometimes had issues with certain spells, and he'd totally exhausted himself the previous evening in Defense. "You okay? I was sure Madame Pomphrey was keeping you today."

"Yeah mate, I don't know what it is with that water spell." He answered, "I always have to fight to make it stop, and it looks like I get tired before you guys when I use it."

"Could some people just be better with certain elements and worse at others? Like how Seamus Finnegan makes fire a lot by accident?" Hermione inquired, showing that she was capable of following both conversations at once, "I wonder if _he_ has trouble with water-based spells."

"I'm more interested in how you and Harry were able to get the geyser spell that Professor Quirrel taught us while using the wrong incantation." Neville pressed, he and many others had been annoyed when the Professor glossed over that, no points given or taken, and didn't let anyone ask questions.

Hermione frowned as she thought of how to answer that question in a way that wouldn't insult Neville, while Justin asked Dudley what he was talking about since the 'Puffs had Defense at a different time. They had recently been taught an offensive water spell in Defense class alongside a simple drying spell to get rid of rain or other relatively clean water. Professor Quirrell taught them all a new incantation, as well as a wand movement that was remarkably similar to the one for the regular _Aguamenti _spell. Harry hadn't been impressed when he practiced it at his desk; and when his turn to demonstrate for the class came he cast _Aguamenti_ instead, resulting in a concentrated jet of water just as strong as any of the ones created by the new spell.

Harry had mouthed the word 'funnel' to Hermione as he sat down, and she quickly understood; the different incantation and wand movement prompted your magic to funnel itself, increasing the strength of the water flow. Or maybe it simply funneled the water, it didn't really matter though; it wasn't really a different spell. Realizing that, Hermione was able to replicate Harry's feat on her second try. She did notice that it was a little more tiring than doing it the Professor's way, though.

Coming back to the present, Hermione began her explanation, "Well, I think that the incantation and wand movements are just meant to guide your magic, I think. So Harry and I just changed how we were visualizing the spell working. I mean, magic _has _to be older than the Roman Empire, but pretty much every incantation we use is Latin."

"Ooh, Ooh!" Dudley grinned and bounced as he fought to control the volume of his voice, "Harry cast a spell _in parseltongue_ this morning! I can't believe I forgot! Professor Mcgonagall said that you can cast spells in any language, she said countries where the language doesn't come from Latin use other things."

The other three didn't even know what to say to that, until Justin asked, "What did it sound like? Creepy?"

"Yeah," Dudley confirmed, "like always. But _wicked awesome,_ too."

"So the actual language doesn't matter?" Hermione mused aloud, lost in her head, "I wonder why we don't cast spells in English then?"

"The Professor said something about 'Arithmancy' making some spells sound silly," Dudley supplied, earning a slight frown from Hermione when he finished with, "whatever that is."

The four friends spent an amicable time discussing spell language, their fledgling friendship with Draco apparently kept the Slytherins away. But they were visited about halfway to King's Cross by a very apologetic Cedric Diggory.

"Oh, I was really hoping Harry would be here." He said after apologizing for intruding, "I wrote my father again, begging him to drop this thing in the Wizengamot but he hasn't been answering since I started trying to change his mind."

"Harry left the school early with Ms. Acacia, our magical guardian." Dudley answered him, "He wanted to be there for Sirius today. They're gonna meet us at King's Cross unless it runs too late."

"Right, makes sense." Cedric nodded, "Well, as bad as it is, I'm rooting for him. I intend to ask my father over the break why he is so adamant over the werewolf thing. His letters indicated that was the root of it."

"Thanks Cedric," Dudley smiled and shook the boy's hand before he could turn to leave, "I'm glad you stopped by."

Dudley, Hermione, Justin, and Neville waited a couple minutes after the train arrived at the platform before getting their things together; this let them make their way off the train without having to deal with crowds. Upon disembarking, it was easy to pick out Petunia, Ms. Acacia rather, and Remus from the small crowd of people that were standing inexplicably near them, though not so close as to be considered rude enough to be told off.

"Who's that?" Neville asked, indicating Petunia and thereby reminding his friends that they hadn't explained who she was; prompting a quick, quiet, explanation that she was their secret magical guardian to prevent questions that might blow her cover later. Even as they approached, Neville seemed oblivious; but Justin appeared to recognize Petunia under her disguise.

"Did you guys win? Sirius?" Dudley asked as soon as they made it to Harry, Moony, and Ms. Acacia; giving both adults a quick hug to help avoid suspicion.

"We can discuss this after we have gotten the two of you home, and I'm sure that Harry will be happy to tell you all about it over the telephone tonight, Hermione." Ms. Acacia answered, relieved that it was her son who asked. Hermione would have fired a million questions off and be far less likely to accept a 'later,' as the answer, "So, how did you enjoy your trip?"

While the two described their train ride home and what they had learned about spells and language, though without mentioning parseltongue, Remus surreptitiously glanced around at those loitering nearby. The confrontation with Lucius Malfoy hadn't exactly been quiet, nor without its own looky-loos, and he felt he recognized a few of these faces from earlier at the Ministry. In particular, he knew for a _fact_ that the man towards the back was Rita Skeeter's photographer, Bozo.

"Forgive me, Ms. Acacia," Remus interrupted, hamming up his deference to the woman for their audience, "I know you don't get to see the children as often as you would like, but they need to be returned to the Dursleys before they start to worry."

"Yes, of course." She answered, Having recognized Bozo, if not any of the others around them, "You will see your friends soon, I'm sure, but Remus is correct; Hermione, your parents are waiting for you outside the barrier. I daresay the same is true for the young man here as well." Leaning in to give the girl a goodbye hug, she whispered, "Dear, a _Prophet_ photographer is here, have your father go somewhere for a late lunch or early dinner rather than straight home. Warn Justin on your way, please."

"Yes ma'am." Hermione answered, fighting the urge to look around for the man in question as she returned the hug with vigor.

"I don't believe your Grandmother came over from the Wizengamot meeting, Mister Longbottom." Remus said after realizing the boy was still loitering around them, Augusta would have said hello if she were on the platform as well.

"Uh, no sir. My Great Uncle is over by the floo," he answered as he pointed to the person in question, who had a surly look on his face as he, very dramatically, checked the time on his pocket watch. Something he probably had been doing frequently, as the floo attendant rolled her eyes at him behind his back when she saw.

"Well _he_ seems like a lot of fun." Harry muttered, remembering the story Neville had told him of that particular uncle dropping him out of a window on 'accident' to get him to show accidental magic.

When they got to the floo, Remus held Harry and Dudley back for a moment, allowing Ms. Acacia to use it by herself, then sent the pair through after her. His own destination was different from theirs though, his werewolf senses couldn't handle being in Mrs. Figg's home for any length of time and he needed to head by Gringotts before he saw Sirius again anyways.

Behind them, Bozo was wondering what he was supposed to tell his boss. He had followed 'Ms. Acacia' because he was _convinced_ that she was actually Petunia Dursley. He certainly took enough pictures of Potter's muggle family to recognize them, but now he was at a loss. This person had taken the floo out of King's Cross on her own, so she really _was_ a squib!

"Well, did you get anything?" Rita Skeeter, his boss, asked from behind him after he'd walked away from the floo, spooking him into jumping. He hated how she seemed to just _appear _whenever there was no one else around.

"No," He answered, "It looked like the Acacia woman could have been in disguise, thought I mighta recognized her, but I was wrong. Didn't get many chances for a really good shot after she hugged the kids, either; got that one though. Also got a good one of Acacia right as she entered the floo ahead of Potter and his cousin. Left 'em with the werewolf."

"Yes," She smiled, glad to have _something_ to show for this after having lost the Granger girls vehicle in the mass of muggle automobiles, "an article speculating on the mysterious woman who secretly holds the guardianship of the Boy-Who-Lived while Dumbledore pretends to do so will definitely make the front page."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Thank you, I'm sorry to bother you on such short notice." Professor Mcgonagal apologized as she entered the Durlsey residence rather early the next morning. "I also must ask you to excuse the tone of my letter, I was rather distraught when I was writing it."

"Try to avoid mentioning the possibility of death without proper explanation in the future, Professor." Petunia answered with an angry glare, "Vernon and I haven't slept a wink last night wondering what could be wrong. Harry and Dudley didn't have any idea."

"Once again, I'm sorry," she returned, "it isn't about any of yours. I need your help with a new muggleborn family I met yesterday. They are intending to pass on magical schooling for all _three _of their children! In the past I wouldn't have felt I had any recourse, I can't say I've ever been close enough to a muggle family to be comfortable asking favours, but I was hoping that you would be amenable to speaking with them about this." Seeing Petunia's shocked expression, she elaborated, "They didn't seem put-off by magic in general. But when they learned that all three children were magical they were worried. After looking over some of the literature on the school and supplies they said that it wouldn't be worth the cost."

"You didn't explain to them what it means for a muggleborn to reject magic in Britain?" Petunia asked, aghast.

"I'm afraid that all Hogwarts Staff take an oath that is similar to those given by Ministry officials concerning how we may interact with muggles while performing official duties, even the parents of muggleborn." Mcgonagal sighed dejectedly, "Ostensibly, it is to protect Secrecy, but I am literally compelled not to volunteer anything about how wrong the decision they are making is. Despite that, I tried telling them how wonderful Hogwarts would be for the children, and the young ones seemed most interested; but the parents did not want to hear it."

The Dursley family didn't know how they were supposed to react to that, giving Professor Mcgonagal a chance to continue, "I wasn't even sure if the Oath would let me do this, but it seems that either because you already know, or because you are a squib, I can ask you to intercede."

"Give me a moment to call Remus." Petunia said with fire in her eyes that she was doing her level best to keep out of her voice after clarifying some things with the Professor, "Have you already arranged to meet with the family again?"

"Yes, I informed them that I would be bringing someone by today for one more consultation before accepting their rejections." Mcgonagal answered, missing Petunia's wince when she said she '_informed them_', "They are also aware of the fact that their memories will be erased if they refuse. They actually seemed _relieved_."

"But it wasn't that they were against magic was it?" Vernon asked while his wife stepped into the other room, "If the family is religious or something then it could be impossible to convince them. They can be as adamant about that as some of your pure bloods."

"No, it didn't seem so," the Professor replied as she thought back to the encounter, "they appeared interested until they started looking at the paperwork dealing with things such as supplies."

Petunia called Vernon into the kitchen to speak privately for a moment while the Professor enjoyed tea with Dudley and Harry. Vernon shuddered as he left the family room, his son was asking Mcgonagal if she would help him learn to turn into an animal when he was old enough…

"What are we going to do if Dudley comes home one day and turns into a bull or a horse?" He asked Petunia quietly.

"We will congratulate him and ask him to refrain from changing inside, so as not to break my nice china." She answered with a snicker, "Vernon, I don't like this. What do you think?"

"From what I heard, this family is either strapped for money or they were sorely put off by the Professor's demeanor. Her description made her sound like she probably came off abrasive to them."

"But she said there was assistance for muggleborn families." Petunia shook her head in frustration, "Should I take one of the boys as well? So they can talk to them about the school? I called Remus last night and he was planning to meet us here. I can call him back and ask him to meet us at the Leaky Cauldron, and then ask if one of the boys wants to come."

"You're going to make them feel invaded."

Petunia smirked, "I think I have a way to get their attention, because I agree with you about Minerva."

It was easy for Petunia, once again disguised as Ms. Acacia because her hair was still dyed, to convince Minerva to eat brunch with Harry while she and Remus handled something at Gringotts. On the way there, he filled her in on the specifics of what the goblins had found on Dumbledore; another case of ineptness rather than malice, it seemed. On the way back, she explained why she'd asked him to meet her here with no other warning, as well as her suspicions of the Professor's conduct. The whole trip took almost no time since they only tarried in Gringotts long enough to confirm with Axegut that they would be ready to meet with the Headmaster at the end of the break.

After the four double-side along apparated away, several patrons of the pub began whispering among themselves. Harry Potter and Remus Lupin were easily recognizable, but the woman with them was clearly the one in charge. Many of them were sure they'd seen her in the Alley or Cauldron before, but none of them could place when it was.

They arrived a small distance from the home they were visiting so that the Professor could verify that the family hadn't contacted non magical authorities over yesterday's incident, raising yet another red flag in Petunia's mind. Before they progressed, she asked that their robes be transfigured into something muggle; Remus ended up doing so when the professor asserted that that wouldn't be necessary.

Her first assessment of the home was that it was pleasant, her second was that it was too small for a family of five and located in a less-than-ideal area of town. She wasn't entirely sure what the tuition for muggleborn students was, as all of her wards were given legacy rates for being part of the Potter Family, but she could see how they might be worried. It bothered her, though, that there didn't seem to be adequate safety nets in place considering how important this was. Something else to speak with Andromeda and Sirius about when she got the chance. Harry wasn't oblivious to things either, he had clearly understood the undertones earlier; and his expression soured when his Professor talked so casually about this family not trusting her.

The lack of a vehicle in the driveway annoyed Petunia further, "You did tell them when to expect us, didn't you?"

"I told them I would return today before the afternoon," Minerva answered, "it is a muggle holiday isn't it? I did not think it would be a problem."

Petunia sighed and simply indicated for the witch to knock on the door and start the introductions, she had a feeling this was going to result in a headache.

"I hoped you were only joking about coming back," the woman who answered the door said with a scowl, "no sales pitch or student perk is going to change things. Are these the 'liaisons' you mentioned before vanishing from our kitchen yesterday?"

"Yes, ma'am." Petunia said, stepping forwards to offer her hand, "My name is Peony Acacia. Before we continue, I noticed that the drive is empty; is your husband at work?"

"Er, yes," the woman looked worried, "he couldn't take off work, and this woman didn't stay long enough for us to tell her he didn't have the day off."

"Professor, I am disappointed." Petunia affected the more official tone she invented for Ms. Acacia and turned on the woman, "I expected a misunderstanding after our discussion this morning, but this is beyond the pale."

"But…P-... Ms. Acacia, I…" the witch stuttered, confused by the aggression in the other woman's voice.

"Remus can take Harry and I home when we are finished, assuming this kind woman is willing to speak with us." She fixed the Professor with a glare, "Your services will not be required, I am sure there is some other school matter you could direct your attention to."

Mcgonagal was appalled at being attacked in such a way but, unnoticed by her, the swift dismissal scored points for 'Ms. Acacia' in the mother's eyes. When the Professor left, the remaining three were invited inside.

"I suppose the least I can do is hear what you have to say," the muggleborns' mother said as they entered, "I'm Sarah Creevey. My daughter is taking a nap in the back room at the moment. She has a fever, so if you could keep that in mind I would appreciate it."

"Minerva told us you have three magical children?"

"My sons are at school, it's a half-day today so the bus should be dropping them off in the next hour." Sarah answered.

"Well, let me introduce these two young men as well." Ms. Acacia went on to introduce Remus as her financial steward, and Harry as her ward and nephew. That prompted a round of explanations that they were _not _representatives of the school and were technically going around the normal channels to be there, which set off visible alarms for Mrs. Creevey. During the explanation, the school bus came by and the Creevey boys, Colin and Dennis, came home extremely excited to be on break.

"We had no desire to intrude," Remus offered when the older children, eleven and nine to their sister's six, returned and began making a small ruckus, "if you'd like, we can come back another time so your husband can be present? Having seen the apparition point that the Professor used, I could bring Ms. Acacia back at a time of your choosing."

"Why would you need to bring her? Couldn't she come herself?" Sarah Creevey asked as her curiosity got the better of her.

"Because I am what is called a 'squib.'" She answered, "Generally considered to be the opposite of your children. I can see magic, but I cannot cast spells. If it helps, I live a non magical life for the most part; telephones and television, my husband drives the family car to work, more or less what you would consider normal outside of when I have to deal with actual witches and wizards."

"Charlie took a short route today because the boys were getting home early." Sarah admitted, "He should be home fairly soon if you wouldn't mind waiting for him. I need to get the boys started on their homework for the break or they'll be rushing at the last minute."

"I could help them if you want." Harry offered, "I need a refresher on non magical stuff anyways, since Hogwarts only has magic classes."

With Harry's help, the boys finished most of their math and science homework before their father got home. Meanwhile, Remus and Petunia told Sarah in simple terms what the Ministry wouldn't about binding her children's magic. Mrs. Creevey was so distraught at the implications that she needed to calm down before she could begin to tell her guests why, exactly, they were looking at skipping Hogwarts. In that time, her husband returned home and was angry to find his wife so emotional.

"Now see here," he began after shushing his wife, "that Mcgonagal woman barely gave us a chance to speak when she was here before! We understand how nice you think your school is, but it isn't for us."

"Charlie hold on." Sarah whispered, "Just listen to them, we _have _to figure something out!" Turning to the others she added, "I don't know what to do. There's just no way we can afford the school with the way things are now."

"I don't mean to be rude," Ms. Acacia said, "because I genuinely do not know; but isn't there some sort of financial assistance from the Ministry for Magic regarding cases like this?"

"Oh, there is." Mr. Creevey nodded, "But even if it applied for each child, we wouldn't be able to put all three of them through on our budget; and the assistance only goes to the first child per family. The Professor said that Colin wouldn't be allowed to teach his siblings or they would all get in trouble, so we didn't think it would be fair for him to learn and not the others."

"But if they don't go to that school they'll die." Sarah hissed in his ear, prompting a new round of explanation from Remus and Ms. Acacia about magical bindings and the effect they had on young people. "We have to figure something out, maybe I could try to get another part-time job as well! There's a day-care in town."

While the adults were talking, Harry was helping the other two boys finish their math homework. Though he had always been fairly good at arithmetic, the young wizard had a renewed interest due to his new knowledge of how math affected incantations. Colin and Dennis weren't big fans of math, themselves, but the idea that it was _magical _was keeping them on-task, as it had for their science homework a few minutes before. Colin even commented that they might only have their book reports to do after Harry was done with them.

"Can you show us any magic, Harry?" Dennis asked after finishing one of his final worksheets.

"I'll show you guys some cool stuff I've learned when we finish this subject, how's that sound?"

The pair grinned and turned their noses back to their worksheets, finishing them in record time for the Creevey children. Instead of showing them any magic right away, Harry checked over their quick work for errors while asking them what books they had to read for their reports. The boys didn't seem like they were big readers, Colin in particular was clearly a very visual person and had pictures he had taken all over the walls; but Harry was insistent that Colin actually read the book he had been assigned.

"The Magician's Nephew is great. Narnia is one of my favorite series." He'd said.

After having the boys correct the questions they had gotten wrong in their haste, Harry finally sat them down and prepared to show them some magic.

"Moony and Ms. Acacia are trying to convince your parents to let you come to Hogwarts." He explained, "Hopefully, if they do it, you guys can work on your magic a little before you start Hogwarts as well, though not with wands cause the Ministry can track that. While I'm casting, try and see if you can _feel_ what's happening. _Lumos._"

The Creevey brothers' eyes grew wide as Harry's hand glowed with a bright white light. While they examined his hand, he focused on increasing the amount of magic he was putting off, trying to get the boys to feel the magic in the room. He couldn't get the boys to feel anything no matter how bright he made the light, nor could they sense anything when he levitated the desk they had been working at. Frustrated, Harry agreed to levitate the boys directly, forcing quite a bit of power into it and setting them to laughing as they said it felt like he was tickling them.

"What is going on in here!" The boys' father shouting from the door to their room drew Harry's attention and he almost lost Dennis. Behind the father, Harry could hear a girl intermittently laughing and coughing as well, they must have woken up the youngest one as well.

Carefully putting the two down, Harry turned and answered, "I helped them finish their science and math homework, sir. They asked if I could show them some magic after they finished. I'm sorry to have worried you, is everything alright?"

"Finished on the first day? All the math?" Mr. Creevey drew up short for a moment, "Son, while I appreciate you helping them with their homework, you shouldn't lead them on. I'm still not sure we'll be able to send them." Harry could see the man wince when he said that. "Why did whatever you were doing with them wake up Rachel?"

"Um, I was making lights earlier," Harry explained, "trying to use enough magic that Colin and Dennis could _feel_ it rather than just see it. That's why I ended up levitating them, I guess I used enough power that she felt it too. They said it felt like I was tickling them when I finally got there."

While Harry was explaining to the confused Creevey parents, Petunia, standing behind them, leaned to Remus and whispered, "I've never been the best at handling money, but I know I've been rather free with it recently. Can we help them?"

"You _or_ Harry could do it, though Ms. Acacia is going to need to find a way to keep her finances up if she keeps with the acts of charity." He answered after a moment to think.

"I wonder how hard that would be to set up?" She mused aloud, drawing a confused expression from her werewolf companion, "To set up some sort of charity for helping those from poorer families afford Hogwarts… Not even just muggleborn, Andromeda explained to me that there are actually some pureblood families that choose to homeschool children after the first because of the cost of Hogwarts, not that muggleborns ever get that option. Of course, only the 'less-pure' pureblood families tend to have multiple children, so the Ministry doesn't care. I have new respect for the Weasleys for making ends meet to put all of their children through so far. I certainly understand how they could have thought that giving Ronald a family wand was an acceptable cut."

In a moment of clarity, Remus' mind returned to his pranking days with the Marauders as he continued her line of thought, "If the charity included some kind of support system for the students outside of school as well it would be excellent." He grinned, "And if that support included seminars or the like to introduce new muggleborn students to Magical society, especially customs and the like, it could even gain some traction with other Light and Neutral families."

"So you think if we started it, we could get support?"

"I think you should explain magical guardianship to the Creeveys." He answered, "At the very least, if they let Ms. Acacia take that roll from Hogwarts; they will have more time before the Ministry gets involved." He glanced back at the family, "We should bring this up with Sirius as well, multiple big Families getting their names involved will make others want to follow just for the PR."

"So we can get all the information the Magical Ministry isn't telling us at this 'Gringotts' place?" Mr. Creevey asked a little later, after hearing Ms. Acacia's offer, "Are you sure you're willing to do this for us? I mean, we've only just met."

"We're sure." Came the response, "I've been rather disenchanted with the magical world since I began interacting with it more frequently. I believe that changes need to be made, and I think Harry agrees with me." Harry nodded sternly when addressed. He really wanted Colin and Dennis to come to Hogwarts; their well being notwithstanding, they both played football!

"Um, pardon me if it's personal," Sarah asked, "but why would you and Harry's opinions matter so much? Who _are _you in the magical world?"

It was well after lunch time when they left the Creevey household, the family had been starstruck to learn that they were talking to a _lord's heir_, magical or not. After explaining the nature and prestige of the Potter Family to them, Ms. Acacia had gone on to give quick details of the war against Voldemort and how it ended. Harry wasn't quite as keen on Colin Creevey going to Hogwarts by the time they departed, he had quickly shifted from enthusiastic listening to fanboyish fawning.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Remus had said before they began to depart, "but I need to be at the Lodge soon. I'm really sorry ma'am."

"Hmm?" Ms. Acacia stopped herself from continuing to talk about Harry and Dudley, "Oh dear! I completely forgot! Charlie, Sarah, I'm so sorry but we have to leave you for today." She took a notepad from her purse and scribbled her home phone number, "This is my number, please call after you've gotten a chance to speak with the goblins."

"Is something wrong, why are you in such a hurry?" Charlie Creevey asked.

Deciding that there was no point in hiding it if they were going to become the Creeveys' Magical Guardian, Ms. Acacia answered, "Remus is a werewolf and, unfortunately, it is a full moon tonight. Harry's family has a hunting lodge in the Scottish woodlands where he goes to transform."

"There's a metal kennel there," Remus expounded, "that I transfigured into silver and lock myself in. I promise, I'm completely safe at any other time of the month."

The Creeveys just nodded, after everything else they'd learned in the last two days "also, that nice guy you just met is a werewolf," was nothing. Colin whipped out his camera and snapped another picture of Remus after learning though, despite having been told off for that by his parents multiple times when he'd take surprise shots of Harry.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"You want to _what_?" Sirius asked Moony to repeat himself, he _had _to be joking. That or he was still a little light-in-the-head from his transformation the night before and speaking nonsense.

"Harry and Petunia want to do it, it was just my idea to get you involved." Remus answered, "A charity for underprivileged magicals," he smirked, "Petunia wants to legitimize her 'Magical Guardian for Hire' business."

"You said something about 'introduction to magic' seminars?"

"That was also my idea." Remus admitted, "At first, I thought it would be a good way to get Neutral families, as well as the Light ones that are more anti-muggleborn than most, to pitch in. But with the Black family as one of the founders of the charity? I think some Dark families would donate; either to get on your good side, or out of a false belief that you are pushing their values on the muggleborn. Despite everything that's happened there are still families on both sides that think you're a 'true Black' through-and-through."

"But it isn't just muggleborns this'll be helping." Sirius asserted, "You're also going to be helping poorer magical families as well?"

"We figured there should be an 'introduction to the non magical world' for those students, having a sturdy leg in both societies is probably the best thing for families in that situation anyways, but there's no reason to advertise that until it's set up." Remus grinned, "Wouldn't want to scare away potential donors before they've contributed."

"Would Petunia, er… _Ms. Acacia_, be the Magical Guardian for all the muggleborn students involved?" Temperance asked, the first input she'd given on the subject, "Or would you be looking for others on a case-by-case basis?"

"Their answer to that was inspired. Vernon came up with it. He said we should look for muggleborn and squibs who had to leave the magical world and get them involved. Petunia wanted to prioritize squibs, as she felt that her not having the ability to cast spells made her less threatening to the Creevey family, but she also wanted to make sure that everyone chosen was involved in both the magical and non magical worlds."

"What's the goal on that front?" Sirius inquired.

"To replace Hogwarts Professors as the default Magical Guardians for muggleborn." Remus answered, only now realizing that that would be the end result if this worked as well as Petunia and Harry wanted it to, "Ideally, all muggleborn would get a Magical Guardian who actually has time to help them and answer questions. Pitching it the right way could get support from both sides of the aisle in the Wizengamot, but we would need to be _very _careful about who we actually got involved."

"I'll talk to Andi about it next time I see her," Sirius offered, "I like the plan."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

It was four days later that the Creevey family called the number Ms. Acacia had given them to organize meeting again to transfer their children's Magical Guardianship. They met at a cafe near the Creeveys' home without the children so that she could tell them her real identity. Petunia was worried that they would be cross with her for lying about something like that, but they understood the 'why' of it fairly quickly after her explanation of anonymity and safety. At the end of a wonderful lunch, Ms. Peony Acacia had three more Magical Wards; and a new talking point to address with the Headmaster when they met him the day before the children returned to Hogwarts.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Minerva Mcgonagal winced when she saw the handwriting on the letter on her desk. _Peony Acacia, Petunia Dursley_; the woman had been furious at her last Friday. She hadn't heard anything else from them since that confrontation, where she had effectively left the lives of three children in the squib's hands. Opening the letter and silently praying to Merlin and Morganna that Petunia had succeeded, Minerva began reading.

"_Professor Mcgonagal,_

_ I have taken the Magical Guardianship of the Creevey children, you should receive _

_confirmation from Gringotts of this soon. I cannot express how disappointed I am in how _

_you have handled this situation, and I shudder to think how many families were turned _

_away from magic by such a superiority complex as was shown to Charlie and Sarah. _

_You may expect Colin to attend in September, and in the interim may I recommend some _

'_English culture for dummies' books? They might help in future interactions with non _

_magical parents... "_

The letter berated both the professor and the Ministry for almost two sheets of muggle paper. Minerva was indignant at first, angry at the confrontational tone of the other woman; but as she had the specific mistakes she made that day laid bare in writing she was forced to concede that if it _her_ home and she was as dismissive as she had been then she would have thrown herself out.

**AN: I have another chapter ready to go for next week, but the current state of the world is making it hard to stay motivated. I'm a very introverted person, I like being alone at home and writing... until I can't do anything else besides that and work... I'm still writing, but it's looking like 1-2 chapters a month for a while may be the pace I'm going until I get proper motivated again. I will still only post new content on Wednesdays.**


	36. Chapter 35: The Wolfstar Foundation

The Wolfstar Foundation

Albus Dumbledore huffed as he left Gringotts. He had attempted to go through channels he remembered from the War, wizards who worked for the goblins, but had been rebuffed at every turn. Even William Weasley turned him away, though a curse breaker likely wouldn't have had access to the information Albus needed anyways. After a third person who should have felt indebted to Albus told him 'no,' he came to the realization that Petunia Durlsey wielded far more power and goodwill within Gringotts than he had thought. He had originally assumed that the goblins were working with her to spite him, but that should not have swayed all of their human staff as well!

Deciding that Gringotts would be a dead end until he understood why they were so enamoured with Petunia Dursley, Albus shifted his attention to the Ministry. Remus and Andromeda had been acting on her behalf for a while now, and he needed to update himself on their most recent movements in the Ministry. Unfortunately, it seemed that Peony Acacia's file was inextricably linked with that of Sirius Black, and both were currently being reviewed by the Head of the DMLE. He couldn't be sure, but Albus thought he saw Amelia Bones _smirk _at him when her secretary gave him the news.

Arabella Figg was still a dead end for information, at least of the voluntary kind. At some point Ms. Acacia had elected to pay off the loan on Mrs. Figg's residence, removing the leverage he had used to get her to report on the Dursleys to him. Now the elderly squib was content to simply breed kneazles and cats and live quietly. It didn't help Albus' case that he had misled her concerning the situation at the Dursley household, and the only information he was able to get came from passive Legilimency; it wasn't useful.

Three strikes, and Albus was out of places he felt he could turn for information. The correspondence he'd received indicated that the goblins had found some "forgotten store of valuable artefacts" belonging to him, the implication being that he had an unmanaged vault that he did not remember; and he while he may not know what artefacts they were talking about, he would be damned if he let goblins get their hands on wizarding artefacts they had no business messing with. He had hoped to at least find out _what_ they were talking about, rather than be surprised on the day of the meeting, but as his time dwindled away the old headmaster resigned himself to once again having his plans and expectations destroyed by Petunia Dursley.

_I thought we were getting over our differences_, he mused to himself, _they seemed to understand my actions' explanations back over Christmas… _Of course, though caught in his self-righteous attitude he could not see it, understanding is not the same as forgiveness.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"So you are absolutely sure this is what you and Harry want to get into?" Andromeda asked Petunia Dursley as they sat on the front porch of the Smith's cottage and watched the children playing a game of football on the lawn by the greenhouses. They had met up with several of their friends from Hogwarts that afternoon, after the Dursleys and Polkiss's returned from Easter Service at church, and immediately wanted to teach them how to play the game, "I just feel I should remind you that there hasn't been an attempt to reform Ministry-Muggleblorn relations in a couple decades now. The closest that happens are the periodic attempts to increase the penalties for muggle-baiting, like the bill we've been helping Arthur Weasley on."

Petunia frowned at that. Arthur Weasley's Muggle Protection Act, as he had originally presented it to them, was an exercise in futility. The loose language, and lack of understanding of non magical items, would leave the bill either completely powerless or completely draconian depending on how the Wizengamot chose to read it. Neither outcome was what the man intended for his work.

"I think it might be fun." Petunia finally answered, "I've had much less to do from day to day with the children at school, even with all the things I help with for Harry's Family. Plus, this could be how Harry and Dudley keep themselves grounded in both worlds in a few years."

"I suppose it will depend on how the Creeveys answer." She continued, "If they refuse after learning everything, it might be a sign that we are just overreaching."

"If they do agree, and you decide to go forward, let me know." Mrs. Finch-Fletchley added, tearing herself away from watching her son weave around a group of confused wizards, "My husband and I might be interested in helping with your charity, we could provide materials for the non magical society class you mentioned."

As they were talking, Harry was charging the goal while Ron stood protecting it. The redhead had turned out to be pretty good as a goalie after the basics of the game were explained. At first he complained that no sport not played on brooms could be worth it, but Dudley laughed and asked him how he thought guarding Quidditch hoops and guarding a Football goal were _really_ different; Ron gave it a chance after that.

Harry sent a powerful shot into an upper corner, but Ron was clearly the designated Keeper when his family played Quidditch; he was able to get his hand in front of the ball and bump it out to Tina to get back downfield with a grin on his face.

Neville tried keeping up with her to play defense, but he wasn't taking to Football nearly as well as Ron. He ran out of breath after running back and forth so much, but was definitely going to be joining Dudley more often for his exercise in Hogwarts in the future.

After the game, Petunia and Temperance brought out lemonade to refresh the group and discovered that some of the pureblood wizards had never heard of the drink.

"Tea, water, pumpkin juice?" Ernie Macmillan answered when asked what kinds of things he normally had to drink. Petunia just shook her head, while Harry and Dudley secretly planned to introduce some of their friends to Cola. The sugar rush that would induce would be _legendary_.

"How are you feeling Sirius?" Temperance asked as she handed him a glass of lemonade, "That was a lot of running around, even as the goalkeeper."

He took a large gulp of the drink before answering, "I'm alright, gonna sleep well tonight!" He laughed, losing his breath for a moment as he did, "But _Merlin_, if Harry and his friends play this game at home then there's no wonder he's so good at Quidditch. And he _runs_, Harry just kept running the whole time! With that kind of stamina he could just dodge and beat most duelists by watching them tire themselves out!"

A bit away, Harry and Dean were asking Neville how he enjoyed the game. The other boy was worn out, but was laying on the grass with a smile. He had ultimately managed to take the ball from Christina once and sent it down the field to Harry before they called the game.

Dudley stood beside them, asking the same questions of his Hufflepuff friends that had agreed to come. Ernie enjoyed it; as had Stephen Cornfoot, the quietest boy in their year. But 'Mr.' Wayne Hopkins was clearly unimpressed. He was fanning himself while complaining about how much he was sweating and how a "true wizard" would never find such "strenuous muggle exercise" to be fun. That didn't stop him from complementing the lemonade, though.

"Yeah, and that's why Su Li in Ravenclaw owns you every time you duel in Defense." Dudley replied to Hopkins' complaint, "She does martial arts, uh… that's like professional non magical dueling. I asked her earlier in the year 'cause she had such good reflexes. She said she's been practicing since she was six."

"Do you have any other potential Guardians in mind before we start taking the steps to make this official?" Remus asked a short time later. The adults were sitting around a conjured table in conversation, while the children were mostly split between flying brooms and walking through the trail in the woods after cooling off from the football game.

"Arabella volunteered this morning." She answered, causing Remus to crinkle his nose, "She doesn't have anything to do besides care for those cats of hers, so I told her I would see about it. I don't really know how to contact other people…"

"Once you hear yes or no from the Creeveys I'll see what Gringotts can do to help." Andromeda added, "Though I am sure that explaining the charity to Axegut will take some time."

"Silversnarl is probably going to have a heart attack." Sirius joked, referring to the Accounts Manager for the Black Family and startling the group who was under the impression that he wasn't paying attention; he hadn't taken his eyes off the group of kids since they arrived on the island.

"He looked like he had a good time playing." Temperance whispered into his ear, earning a slight smile from him, "You'll have to work on your stamina so you can keep up with him this summer."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"You want to what?" Axegut's voice betrayed his utter confusion.

"We are planning to establish a charity," Petunia repeated, "for helping underprivileged witches and wizards to attend Hogwarts as well as make their way afterwards."

"We are planning to provide assistance to more than just muggleborn." Andromeda expounded, "Pureblood and halfblood children who would normally be homeschooled will also be given a chance."

"And how are you getting the members of your Wizengamot to go along with this?" Axegut asked, "I assume the intention of this charity is for other families to donate their own gold as well, no?"

"We are planning to offer introductory courses before first year, and potentially during summer breaks as well, to help recipients of the charity to blend between the worlds more effectively." Petunia answered politically. "The ones we intend to target are those who would be best served by such."

Axegut took a moment to ruminate over that, "There is more than one kind of such course being planned, isn't there. A mirrored pair, one might say?" Seeing the nods from each of the witches in front of him, he grinned a toothless grin and continued, "And is there a reason that you came to me with this proposal _today_? After all, shouldn't you be preparing for your meeting with Albus Dumbledore in the afternoon?"

"While I admit that the two meetings are connected," Axegut's grin somehow got wider as Petunia spoke, "I was also waiting on acceptance from a muggleborn family in need. They will be the first recipients of the charity." She waited while he processed that, "They have agreed to let me be their children's Magical Guardian; which is something that I want to push with this charity, options for contacts in the magical world. Non magical parents should be given a choice as to who their children's other Guardian is, rather than being forced to accept an assignment from the school."

"Well, why don't we get things started so the parchmentwork can begin?" The goblin offered, "I must admit I am not sure how well this will go over, but it is still my job to assist you. If possible, I would like the chance to confirm with Heir Potter that this is what he wants. I mean no offense, it is just that this account has been so…"

"I understand, Axegut, that won't be a problem." Petunia interrupted him, "I didn't want to bring Harry to the meeting with Albus, but I'll make sure we come by at the start of the summer so you can speak with him. Will that be soon enough?"

"Of course, ma'am." He replied, "Please understand that it is not that I do not trust either of you. I just need to be able to document that everything has been handled properly after what happened over the past decade."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Ron, could I talk to you about Harry and his family for a bit." Arthur pulled his son aside after they finished dinner. "You've visited them twice now, and gotten to know them in school, I was wondering what you could tell me about them."

"I am actually in Potter's House, father, so I can tell you all about him." Percy interjected, "He's rather smart, particularly in potions and herbology, and earned plenty of House Points as well. He is also at the top of his class for defense, but-"

"Yes Percy, as a prefect I'm sure you know all about his academic ability; and anyone can tell me about how well he flies." Arthus sighed, "I was hoping your brother could tell me something more interesting about who he is."

"I don't understand." Percy replied.

"I know," Arthur explained without any malice, "but what I'm looking for isn't the kind of thing you would even think of."

"I get it dad." Ron said, fighting to keep the grin off his face at the fact that his dad needed _his_ help and not Percy's, "We can talk."

They went outside for some privacy during their talk, annoying Percy even further.

"I guess you wanna know what people are saying about Harry?" Ron asked after his father sat down beside him on the porch swing.

"Well, yes." Arthur said, "But I also want to know your thoughts. I've always thought you were more insightful than you showed, when you actually put your mind to something at least, and I'm fairly confident that Slytherin House would not let you continue to hide it. What do you think of Harry Potter's family?"

"Dudley is a really good guy," Ron started, accepting his father's words for the praise they were meant to be, "he doesn't see any of the stuff people normally care about, so he's ended up with friends in all four Houses." When his father made no motion to interrupt him, Ron continued, "He was the first one to try and be friends with me. I don't know for sure, but I think Harry only gave me a second chance at first because Dudley asked him to try. Harry trusts him a lot."

"Percy could tell you about her grades, sure, but Hermione is _scary _smart." Ron moved on to the next closest person to Harry that he knew, "She's memorized all the chapters of our textbooks that have been assigned so far so she can read ahead 'for fun.'" He grimaced at the idea of reading that much and enjoying it, "I also remember she asked me if our family had house elves earlier in the year. I just laughed and told her we weren't that well off, but she was relieved, which I kinda thought was weird."

"Many muggleborn scoff at the nature of the House Elf Bond." Arthur supplied for his son, "They see it as fundamentally the same as slavery." He frowned, "Did anyone ever sort her out on that?"

"I think Harry took her to the kitchens to meet some real house elves and get their opinions. I haven't really heard anything else about it." His father nodded approvingly and waited for Ron to finish.

"Harry is really patient, he even helped me and Neville Longbottom in potions, and we're the worst in the class! I know it was in the Prophet, but he wants to be a healer when he graduates. It's weird though, when he gets angry, he stays that way. He was mad at Diggory for a couple months straight after his dad started going after Harry's Godfather."

"Is there anything else?" Ron hadn't really given him anything he couldn't surmise yet, himself.

"It's really hard to tell what he's thinking." Ron answered after thinking for another moment, "He'll be talking to you, but his face looks like he's on something else. Then he says something odd and you can tell that that's what he was thinking about. Makes it hard to keep up with him sometimes."

"What about the adults in his life?" Arthur pressed after nodding his understanding, now coming to the crux of the issue. He had been offered quite a bit of advice on editing his bill by Andromeda Tonks; as well as from a mysterious squib 'Peony Acacia,' who had written to him a couple times.

"His aunt is great. You wouldn't even know she's really a muggle if you talked to her, she's more comfortable with magic than any of the other muggle parents I met." Ron fidgeted in his seat as he remembered Mrs. Dursley's cooking and lemonade, "She and mum should trade recipes sometimes."

"Mr. Dursley is nice enough, he sorta stayed off to the side though." Ron thought for a moment, but didn't really have much else to say about him, "You know Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, I think, yeah? Then there's Ms. Acacia. I haven't met her yet, but she's the squib who's Harry and the other's Magical Guardian. She picked them up from King's Cross on Friday, Neville said she was nice."

"So she's real? I have received correspondence from a 'Ms. Acacia' concerning the Muggle Protection Act I have been working on. But since they only started coming after Halloween, I was worried that it was simply Petunia Durlsey; especially after I couldn't find a record of an Acacia family." Arthur pinched his nose in frustration as he finished, "The advice she gave was good, but in the back of my mind I was worried that someone would find out that the ideas came from a muggle; that would kill the bill immediately."

"Ms. Acacia pulled one over on the Headmaster." Ron answered, "She's wicked smart too, I guess."

Later that night, after speaking with Ron for a bit longer, Arthur Weasley spent time thinking over what his son had told him. Most of his worries were put aside, but he still had the nagging suspicion that there was something he was missing. One thing was certain, though; these weren't the sort of muggleborn-and-raised to go about trying to change things without understanding them first. Miss Granger's actions concerning elves, as well as their aunt's easy acceptance of magic in her everyday life spoke volumes about that.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"How wonderful to see you both." Dumbledore said amicably as Andromeda and Petunia entered the room with the Potter Accounts Manager, "Have Harry and Dudley enjoyed their break? What have they been getting into?"

Petunia fought not to wince in annoyance as she answered, "The boys have had a wonderful time while they have been _away from school_, not that it is any of your business, Headmaster."

Albus examined the pair of women behind the goblin, and was secretly glad that Vernon Dursley had elected not to come; the man seemed far too insightful, practically a Legilimens.

The meeting did not start as expected, instead of confronting him with whatever he had forgotten about, Andromeda and Petunia instead sat back and allowed the Accounts Manager to reverify all of the facts of the situation with the Headmaster. Rather than try and seriously haggle over what had or hadn't been directly used for Harry's benefit, something Albus knew he would never be able to do while still looking like the good guy, he was being offered to repay exactly two-hundred thousand Galleons. He was confident that he _didn't _have that much gold to return, not even close, but that didn't seem to phase the goblin in front of him as he spoke.

"It is Gringotts' understanding that, at this time, you are un_willing_ to return sufficient gold to the Potter vaults." The Accounts Manager droned, ignoring Dumbledore's grimace at the way he phrased the statement, "However, in their magnanimity, the Regent and Guardian for Heir Potter have offered to accept alternative means of payment."

Albus waited for the goblin to explain to him what 'repository of artefacts' they wanted to plunder or pawn to cover his mismanagement, but was instead addressed by Petunia.

"We are intending to start a charity organization, Headmaster." She began, "One that I believe you will wholeheartedly approve of." His eyebrows rose in shock and confusion, "We have been at an impasse since Christmas. Minerva informed me that you are under the impression that we were no longer pursuing this. You were mistaken. My husband warned Harry and I before we met in December that even if you were able to repay the money that it could not be done all at once. A transaction that large would be noticed and draw gossip, and we don't want the general public to know what has been happening."

The Headmaster was clearly shaken by the quick change in topics, and Andromeda didn't let up as she filled the void left by her compatriot's silence, "The charity we are planning will begin by providing additional funding to prospective students of Hogwarts who would otherwise not be able to go for financial reasons. The current assistance measures are completely insufficient. For instance, did you know that the Muggleborn Introduction Fund only provides assistance for the first child, regardless of how many siblings they have or just how bad their situations might be?"

"I am aware," Albus confessed, "unfortunately any attempt to change those regulations ends with certain Wizengamot families finding some other Ministry function that needs even _more_ money. There is simply too large a faction in our government that would rather there be fewer muggleborn, I have spent my time as Headmaster trying to change the minds of the young people so that they will not repeat their parent's mistakes."

"But she did not say we were only planning to help muggleborn." Petunia continued, "There are also many children of magical families that are homeschooled in lieu of going to Hogwarts because their families cannot afford to send anyone besides the oldest boy if they have more than one child."

"And you want to include them as well?"

"Yes, but we would like to take this beyond being simply a scholarship." Petunia elaborated, "We would like to provide assistance other than simply paying for tuition and supplies."

"Such as?" Albus asked, clearly interested.

_He must know more about the situation than I thought_, Petunia mused, _why hasn't he tried doing anything before now?_

"The most common complaint from traditional pureblood families concerning muggleborn is that they do not respect magical tradition." Andromeda answered, "We would like to provide, among other things, a sort of 'Introduction to Magical Society' seminar for new muggleborn students." She could see Dumbledore's face falling as she said that, but continued anyways, "In addition, we would like the charity to provide Magical Guardians for the children. Our idea is to find squibs willing to do it; the fact that they are magical but cannot cast spells will help them break the ice with non magical parents."

"I fear you do not understand how your intentions could be used against you." Albus said as soon as she was finished, surprised to find the goblin Accounts Manager nodding silently in agreement with him, "The pureblood faction in the Wizengamot largely does not want new muggleborn knowing too much of how to get by in our world. Even worse are the families in that faction that actually _do_ want such a class, but only to attempt indoctrination to their way of thinking as early as possible."

"We have no intention of letting that happen." Petunia declared, "We will be ensuring that the children only receive appropriate materials for introduction to the magical world. Something that the Houses of Potter and Black will guarantee."

"So Sirius is involved as well?" Albus asked, "I suppose I should have assumed as much. I certainly stand behind any attempt to help integrate muggleborn, though I am worried that you are going about it in a rather naive way." He took off his glasses and cleaned them on his robe as he thought about how to address another problem he foresaw, "In addition, I fear you are about to suggest that I pay into this charity in lieu of directly paying back the money to House Potter. I fear that would shoot your efforts in the foot, to use a muggle expression, Petunia; if I were to pledge such an amount then no traditional family would back you. It might even lead to them pressing the Wizengamot into shutting you down for fear of indoctrination in the opposite direction than they want."

"We understand that, and have a different plan in mind." Petunia answered.

"So do I finally get to find out what trinkets I have forgotten I own?" He returned.

Petunia nodded to Axegut, who began explaining, "In nineteen forty-five, after your defeat of the Dark Lord Gellert Grindelwald, many magical beings from all over Europe and Asia gave you gifts of thanks." The goblin fought not to sneer at the shocked expression that Dumbledore failed to keep off his face, "At the time, you had everything that wasn't immediately useful to your positions in the Ministry or Hogwarts in a storage vault. Though we aren't one hundred percent sure, the value of the contents of said vault should be more than enough to cover your debt."

"Gringotts has offered to sell the contents of the vault, discreetly, over a period of time." Andromeda picked up, keeping Albus off balance, "You can repay House Potter in this way: A donation of ten thousand Galleons will be taken from the proceeds of selling contents from the vault, the standard liquidation fee will be paid via selling excess items to cover them. This will continue for twenty years, or the vault is empty, whichever happens first. At that time, the matter will be considered settled and the vault reopened to you."

"Should I not be allowed to check the contents of the vault first?" Albus ventured, "Some items might rather pers-"

"The Potter Family has been rather kind in their allowances already." Axegut interrupted him, "It would be poor form to try and take anything out when they are already promising to return everything above-and-beyond what is needed to repay them."

"After all," Petunia added with a slight smirk, "if we let you check the vault, and then there wasn't much in it, how could we accept that in good faith? How about, instead, we will also agree to inform you if an item in the vault seems likely to possess more sentimental value than financial, will that work?"

"We could even offer you the chance to decide if we start by selling the most expensive items first or if we should begin with those of lesser value?" Andromeda offered.

"I would prefer, if you would, that you left those items of greatest value in the chance that they could be returned to me." He answered.

"So you agree with our proposal?" Andromeda returned, not giving Dumbledore time to deny it, "Excellent, Axegut has some parchment for us to sign and then everything can get underway. The charity was made official this morning, and it is our hope that this September will see the first of our students attending Hogwarts."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

**The Day Before**

"It's nice to see you again, Mister Olivander." Harry asked after the wandmaker finished speaking to another customer about refurbishing their wand. "I was wondering if I could ask you a question?"

"Hmm? Mister Potter, how are you?" The aged wizard asked with his trademark crazy-smile, "Tell me, which wand did you end up deciding to use?"

"Um, the redwood wand, sir." Harry answered, "It feels better most of the time."

Olivander nodded, "Yes well, I am sure that the other wand will make its purpose known sooner or later. Now what did you want to ask me?"

"You have a lot of wands here, sir." Harry began, "What happens to the wands whose owners never come for them? Like, what would have happened to mine and Dudley's wands if we hadn't come here for them?"

"Well, assuming no one _else _meets the wand's requirements, it will eventually degrade." The wandmaker answered, "Wands will generally last much longer than the wizard, but only if they are used often. Channeling magic makes the wood and focus of the wand more resilient to time and decay. An unclaimed wand will begin to rot from within after enough time, which is determined by the nature of the core. The more magically active the core focus of the wand, the quicker it will begin to decay if left unclaimed. Dragon heartstring wands last the shortest on a shelf, about thirty years unused, before they are too degraded to be claimed."

"Um, if it isn't rude, how many wands do you have like that?" Harry asked, "That are close to being too old?"

"Oh my, it isn't often that people take an interest in wand making young man." Olivander chuckled, "I am not sure exactly how many aging wands I have, but it is quite a few." He frowned, "I am more worried about the fact that more and more wands that I believe _should _be claimed aren't finding their proper users. I wish I knew why, though. I know that some children never come to claim a wand, but… I used to see more and more muggleborn each year. That slowed down after the Great War; I think that has something to do with it."

Petunia and Vernon nodded behind Harry, their suspicions confirmed. Wizards in Britain called World War II the "Great War" or "Grindelwald's War" because they didn't get involved in the first World War; which means that the decline of muggleborn entering magical society lined up with the the Wizengamot raising the tuition of Hogwarts, as well as the taxes on muggleborn, to pay for war expenses. It probably would have been even worse, with Voldemort's war following so soon after, but the Death Eaters who claimed Imperious had made extravagant donations to the Ministry to make sure they were believed.

"Mister Olivander, I'm sorry to interrupt." Vernon began as he stepped forward into the conversation, the man had continued telling Harry about wandmaking after his detour to the War; and it was certainly helpful for Vernon's self-assurance to think of him as a craftsman and shopkeeper rather than a wizard, "But I was wondering if you would be willing to work with us on a project, a charity for young magicals. We were trying to think of a name for it when Harry randomly wondered about unclaimed wands and we thought you might be willing to help us."

"I'm sorry sir, but I will not be able to help, I barely make a profit." Olivander answered, raising his hands in apology, "I take a loss on every wand I sell to first years because I know that there are so many other ways that the Ministry, and less savory shopkeepers, will overcharge the new blood."

"You misunderstand," Vernon corrected him, "we aren't asking you for donations or anything like that; just information, and a statement. When Harry asked about the wands, he thought it was something like what you said. If the wand chooses the wizard then it has to be made before that person enters the store, what happens when that wizard never comes? It gave me an idea for a name for our charity, as well as something of a celebrity endorsement."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Frustrated, and still off balance from the talk of the charity at what he thought was going to be a heated negotiation concerning repayment, Albus accepted the terms that had been presented to him. It didn't seem too bad, all things considered; he hadn't put anything _truly_ useful in there, now that he had time to think about it. He had managed to get the two women to explain more about their plans for the charity as well, pleasantly surprised that they included non muggleborn in them. He was often so focused on his progressive agenda that those children had all but fallen from his mind. After all, it wasn't like they received _no_ tutelage; and their parents were perfectly capable of determining what was right for their children.

Across the table, Andromeda couldn't believe how accurate Vernon Dursley's assessment of Albus Dumbledore had been. The moment a large scale charity had been mentioned the old man changed into almost a totally different person. He had switched from defensive to open in scant seconds at the thought that he could influence something like this, "for the Greater Good" no doubt.

Behind his passive expression, Axegut grinned internally, Albus Dumbledore apparently adored the spotlight enough to get sloppy; the standard liquidation rate, applied to items of "middling value" would see him paying hand over fist. The rate for selling unidentified magical items was one hundred galleons or two percent, whichever was higher. This prevented wizards from wasting Gringotts' time moving their garbage; and by his estimation that vault had a _lot_ of garbage.

It had also escaped the Headmaster's notice that they had promised to "inform him" of items with obvious sentimental value, not to return or refrain from selling them.

"What will you be calling this charity? Or the scholarship it will offer?" Albus asked as they prepared to leave. He wasn't completely at ease, and was sure that he had been tricked somehow; the absence of Vernon Dursley had stopped being comforting when his three conversation partners had taken turns speaking without pause. But despite that, he was still quite happy to feel like he was involved in yet another important function, "I could give you some ideas, I am well versed in what kind of thing would get the notice of the Wizengamot."

"That won't be necessary, but thank you." Petunia waved him off, "We have spoken with another prominent figure about that. You said it yourself that your name being too associated with us would have a negative impact on our success. So we have another celebrity of Magical Britain ready to provide a public endorsement, and you can remain an anonymous donor."

When it looked like he was going to ask again, she continued, "I know how wizards love their acronyms, so the scholarship will be introduced as 'NWLU.' Offered by the Wolfstar Foundation, whose overall purpose will be to even the playing field for magical children."

"Just because you present it as an official organization does not mean the most pureblood families will approve." Albus said, "The vagueness you are no doubt planning to employ will help a lot, but I am sure this will be an uphill battle, regardless, when it comes to helping more muggleborn enter our world and stay. Anyway, what does it stand for? Or is it _just_ an acronym?"

"You just need to change how the topic is viewed to get support. 'Optics,' Vernon called it." Petunia said. This was a collaboration between Mister Olivander and her husband, designed to refocus the scrutiny of the Wizengamot on a problem that their traditions would not allow, "For that purpose, we have decided to call our scholarship program 'No Wand Left Unclaimed,' after the massive back storage of wands that our celebrity sponsor, Mister Olivander, has in his shop."

Albus Dumbledore could find no fault in the name; most Wizengamot members got their wand from Garrick Olivander, and they knew his words and beliefs about the wand choosing the wizard. The implication that there were dozens, or hundreds, of wands that were rotting away while they waited for their worthy owner would likely offend many. The more traditional the Family, generally the more importance they placed on caring for their wands.


	37. Chapter 36: A Wrench in the Plan

A Wrench in the Plan

"I'm sorry for asking you to meet here at the Burrow." Arthur Weasley apologized to his guests as they dusted themselves off from the floo, "There have been several late nights the past week or so," he confessed, "Molly will kill me if I were to miss dinner again, but she assured me that we would be fine to handle guests."

"Busy work at the Ministry?" Petunia asked.

"Unfortunately so, Easter and all." He answered, "Troublemakers tend to come out around muggle holidays and make mischief. Putting harsher penalties on such is the root of the Muggle Protection Act, as I'm sure you know."

Petunia frowned at that, and Andromeda stepped forward in the silence, "How did you feel about the suggestions we gave you? My cousin Sirius also thought of how to word the law in such a way that you get to keep experimenting on your car, if you would like to see it?"

"Oh?" Arthus perked up; even the suggestions of Ms. Acacia, who had advised of workarounds for most everyday enchanted items of a beneficial nature, hadn't been able to come up with a reasonable way to allow his Ford Anglia to stay.

"He has a vested interest in it." She replied with a chuckle, "Something about a classic motorbike that he enchanted to fly."

"Well," He segued, "I've taken the suggestions I received and added what I could to the bill, would you like to take a look before we see about adding in that new language from Lord Black?"

Going over the text took longer than Petunia expected. The bill itself wasn't very long; but even after being advised to fix it, it was filled with misspellings. Honestly, how the Ministry's "lead expert on muggles" couldn't spell "electricity" was beyond her!

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Distracted, Potter?" Snape hissed as he walked by the table, taking great pains to ignore the fact that the boy was sitting and chatting with Daphne Greengrass. His snakes were becoming much too close with the other Houses. What was he supposed to tell the parents of these children, his _friends_, when they hear that their children are fraternizing with opposing Families?

"Our potion is simmering, Professor. It needs another two minutes." Harry answered.

"That does not mean that you may cause a distraction to the others. Five points from Gryffindor." He replied testily as he walked away.

"Sorry." Harry whispered to Daphne when Snape was far enough away, earning a raised eyebrow from the blonde girl; it wasn't like _she_ had lost points, "I was pretty much done explaining though, do you think your father would be interested in that? If so, Aunt Andi can write to him about it."

"Is it going to be related to the bill your family got him involved in that Lord Weasley is working on?" She asked as she glanced at their potion. It was flawless; Potter's work was better than hers, and it pissed her off! Her mother joked that she was born asking for a cauldron and fire, then Harry Potter came in raised by muggles and was better at almost all the practical aspects of the class, "If so, then he will want to know about it in case he does not want to associate with such. A charity for muggleborn is a little too far from center for our Family."

"Oh, it isn't just for muggleborn." Harry whispered back, "The scholarship part is going to be for purebloods who need it too. I can't say who yet, but there are three families that Aunt Andi and Ms. Acacia are reaching out to."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"You… are you serious?" Arthur Weasley's eyes were wide as he processed what Andromeda and Petunia had just offered him.

"Absolutely," Petunia answered, cutting him off before he could protest, "the scholarship is meant to be offered to any family who needs it to ensure that all of their magical children can go to Hogwarts. I know you were not planning to keep your daughter home, but I also understand that the lighter burden would be a tremendous help."

"We don't accept charity," Molly hissed to her husband before turning to her guests, "we have put all of our boys through Hogwarts, we can put our daughter through as well."

"I'm sure that is the case, and we don't mean to insult you by offering, but we just felt that you could use a little help with your burden." Andromeda appeased, "And please understand that this is not merely charity, it is a scholarship; something that I've learned is fairly common in the non magical world. There will be academic standards Ginevra would be held to if you accepted; and if any recipient decides to simply goof off at Hogwarts, there will be repercussions."

"Still-"

"Molly, please." Arthur interrupted her before quickly turning back to the other women, "Could we have some time to discuss this? We need to talk, as a family, and I think Ginny should have a say as well."

"That is perfectly alright." Petunia answered, "If you have any questions, just let one of us know. We hope you will say 'yes.'"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Professor Quirrell cursed under his breath as he finally made it back to his room and lifted the extremely taxing, but equally obscure, variation of the Disillusionment Charm he had learned during his travels. The Defense Professor was rather sure that the headmaster had never heard of it, and thus would be unable to see through it. Wandering the castle under such a draining spell off and on for an entire week had been exhausting, and he really had nothing to show for it. The enchantment placed on the Mirror of Erised was simply too strong, Quirrell's master was at a loss as to how Dumbledore could be so powerful without undergoing Dark rituals to increase his magic; and there was no way of retrieving the Stone except the loophole the headmaster himself had selected.

The only person who could take the Stone from the Mirror was someone who knew what they were doing, and had no desire to use the Stone for their own benefit. Since the Stone was Quirrell's only chance at being separated from his master without dieing, he couldn't be said to want it for no personal benefit. Similarly, he could not threaten, bribe, or Imperious a student to get it; he had tried all three while Dumbledore was away from the school on personal business, and had to obliviate the children involved after each attempt failed.

Classes began that morning, putting a damper on his work towards getting the Philosopher's Stone. But if he couldn't figure it out by then there was always the final solution: absconding with his prize, Mirror and all, and figuring out the rest later.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Thank you for joining us Mister Potter." Dumbledore smiled cordially as Harry and Minerva entered his office, "Professor Vector here would like to be present to observe you and your familiar while we work, if that is alright with you both. Now that you have become proficient at casting the body-shrinking charm, she would like to observe the transfer of magic to see if we can determine just how large Najash will grow to be before all is said and done."

"That would be nice," Harry answered the headmaster before turning to the other professor, causing him to miss her questioning look at Dumbledore, "he's already growing faster than we thought he would at the beginning of the year."

"Well, let us see what we can find out then, shall we?" She said, wiping the confusion from her face, "I shall be standing to the side with my wand while you undo the charm and then renew it."

"Um," Harry deadpanned as he walked over to a small table near the window and held his hand out for Najash to slither onto it, "I don't normally keep him under the charm, his size doesn't really bother _me_."

"Oh my." Septima Vector muttered under her breath as the serpent coiled itself on the mahogany table. It was far larger than she expected after looking up the species of snake, a little over three feet long and more than an inch thick now! It was a good thing that Hogwarts' robes were so bulky or he would probably frighten students in the halls.

"Sorry to startle you professor," Harry apologized as he stepped back from the table for a moment, "is there anything you need to do to prepare? I feel bad dragging Professor Mcgonagall here since I don't need your rune circle to use the bond anymore."

"Thank you, Mister Potter," The Professor in question interjected, "I do not think this should take so long that it is an inconvenience."

"I just need to get this crystal primed," Septima explained as she withdrew a very clear quartz crystal from her pocket, "It has runes carved into the surface that allow it to record magical emanations when activated. The Headmaster has kindly put up a temporary array that will keep most of the magic in the rest of the castle out while we record your casting." She explained the last as she pointed out a few pieces of parchment in the corners of the room with a bunch of complex runic squiggles on them stuck to the walls.

_So Dumbledore is going out of his way to do this?_ Harry thought, confused, "Sir, should I tell her about… um…"

"That is up to you, Harry," Dumbledore answered, "I will say that I trust Professor Vector not to say anything to others if you do not want her to."

"Professor Vector was a Gryffindor, Mister Potter." Mcgonagall offered, "I'm sure she would not gossip if you told her. What's more, I think you could ask her some of the questions you and Miss Granger had about magic and language."

"If you say so, ma'am, I'll trust you." Harry said with a nod of his head before turning back to the new, to him, professor, "Professor Vector, I can speak Parseltongue; and the day we left for spring break I accidentally cast the body-shrinking charm in it. Is it possible to do your test both when I'm casting normally and when I Speak?"

To her credit, Septima merely blinked in surprise before answering the boy's question, "It would take a few minutes to wipe the crystal after we've used it, but if you and Minerva do not mind waiting then I would be intrigued to look for differences in the casting as well."

Harry took his time feeling out and opening the bond between himself and Najash, like he always did when he intended to cast a spell. No reason to rush things and risk hurting his friend. Just before Professor Vector opened her mouth to ask if everything was alright, the bond flared to life and her crystal flashed as it started recording.

The Professor's eyes widened as Harry incanted the spell and almost effortlessly shrank his snake by more than a foot, while also causing him to become about a quarter inch thinner. She had expected it to take significantly longer than that once he began, the strength of their connection was impressively strong if the spell could take instantaneously.

"That was well done Mister Potter." The Professor offered as she dipped the crystal first into an inkwell and then onto a blank parchment once he'd finished. "While we wait for those results, are you aware of what we are measuring? Why casting spells like that is different than normal?"

"Not really ma'am," Harry answered with a confused look to Professors Dumbledore and Mcgonagall, "I know that if I want to cast certain kinds of spells on Najash then I need to do it through the bond so I don't accidentally hurt him or do something I can't undo."

"With so many other things going on, and this being his first year of magical study, I felt it was better not to fill his head with too much theory that he could not do much with at the moment." Dumbledore explained, "It seems as good a topic as any while we wait, I suppose."

"The most important distinction," Septima began, "is that, since they are magical creatures themselves, it is necessary to overcome a familiar's personal magic in many cases. This is especially true for physical alterations, magical creatures do _not_ enjoy being transfigured."

"Casting through the bond," Dumbledore continued when Professor Vector seemed unable to come up with a layman's explanation for the rest, "is more than simply tricking Najash's magic into not rejecting the changes. By casting your spell along the link between you, you actually attach the spell to Najash's magic. While you are the one to cast the spell, it is Najash's own magic and acceptance that keep there from being any degradation of the effect. If you cast the body-shrinking charm on Najash like one of us would then, even if you succeeded, the spell would fail much sooner than you are accustomed to as Najash subconsciously fought against the change."

"That makes sense, sir." Harry said thoughtfully, "So does that mean if I wanted to cast multiple spells like that, maybe to give him even better senses on top of the size change, I would need to know how much magic he has so he isn't trying to maintain too many things?" When he saw the Headmaster's shocked expression Harry explained his question, "I saw in the book you recommended Hermione about familiars that some people will do things like that, but nothing about why it could be done with familiars and not with regular pets. I thought Najash would find a stronger sense of smell or vibration cool."

"I wager that he would." Dumbledore returned as he glanced at the sheet that was filling in with the information gleaned from Harry's casting. It took a bit of control not to react to what he saw, and a bump from his foot accompanied by a casual nod of his head alerted Septima to check the results quietly.

"I'll let you know what my conclusion is about how long he'll get soon, Mister Potter." Professor Vector said, fighting to keep her face neutral as she moved the parchment out of view, "It will take a few minutes longer for the crystal to be reset, just give us a moment."

During that time, Harry asked her several questions about language and magic, "Hermione even ordered a book on magical languages through Gringotts, but it hasn't come in yet." He concluded.

"It sounds like I can look forward to seeing the two of you in my class in another year." She said with a happy grin, "Honestly, I've always been much more fascinated with the raw mathematics of spell theory than the linguistics, but our course will cover a little language as well. Not as much as Ancient Runes, but even that course mainly keeps to European languages. A bunch of Norse and Celtic runes, with even more Greek and Latin ones."

While they spoke, Dumbledore frowned behind his crossed hands, _Arithmancy and Ancient Runes? How am I supposed to convince him to take Divination if his head is too focused on logic?_

Behind him, Fawkes made a clucking sound he knew to be laughter that drew him out of his thoughts. Glancing back at the bird it _smirked_ at him. _Merlin, _how he hated that overly flashy turkey sometimes.

_~Sorry to keep bothering you with this, friend.~_ Harry hissed to Najash as he undid the previous shrinking charm, _~It can't be comfortable to keep changing sizes like this.~_

_~Not as bad as you think, Harry. It does not bother me, you are learning to use your magic. Soon, we will learn how to heal.~_

Nearby, Professor Vector shivered as she heard Harry hiss at the snake. She had known a parselmouth in her youth when she visited the Middle East, but had never been able to get over the creepy feeling she got whenever she heard the language.

Harry took his time once more in feeling out the bond, though when he cast the spell in Parseltongue it took a noticeably longer amount of time to complete. Septima Vector was prepared for unusual results this time, and once the ink she dipped onto the crystal finished filling out the parchment with data she went ahead and moved both off the table.

"Casting the spell in Parseltongue had a minor effect on the speed of the transfiguration," She said after Harry confirmed everything was alright with the snake, "I would ask that you try and keep track of how long the spell lasts this time, don't cancel it early. That way you can know if duration is affected by language."

"Yes ma'am," Harry said as he picked Najash back up and allowed him to slither under his robes, "thank you for coming with me again, Professor Mcgonagal."

"It was no problem, Mister Potter." She answered, "Feel free to rejoin your friends for lunch, I have something I wanted to speak to the headmaster about while I was here."

As soon as Harry left the room and the door closed behind him Minerva turned back to her two colleagues, "Septima, I have known you for over half a century and have never once seen you conduct a test without preparing all the research needed ahead of time."

"Indeed," she replied, "I did all the research on serpent familiars and species last night. But the results were rather shocking. The Headmaster indicated he wanted to wait to tell young Harry; personally I think we need to discuss _how_ we are going to tell him."

"If you recall from last term," Dumbledore explained, "the size of the magical core in Harry's familiar was staggering considering how young he was when the bond was made and how powerful he still is." Septima gasped at that, not even considering until then that the bond could have been established before he arrived at Hogwarts, "Specific values are impossible, quantity of magic can only be determined by comparison after all, but when I sensed Harry and Najash with their bond open I… Septima, do your reports show what I felt?"

"I would think so." She answered as she reviewed both sheets of parchment, "Najash has a magical core that is more comparable to that of a weak wizard than a magical familiar."

"What does that mean?" Minerva asked, "Will it start casting spells or something?"

"I highly doubt that it will ever be capable of actually casting magic, regardless of the core size," she returned, "but I cannot even imagine how such a thing came to be. The magical core of a familiar is supposed to be created by permanently taking a little of the magic in the wizard, however _anyone _who gave their pet this much magic would be a squib if they weren't killed." She shuddered, "But the thing that Mister Potter will be most worried about is the fact that with so much magic involved there is a strong possibility that his snake _never_ stops growing. Or that he will be as much as twenty or more feet long before he finally does."

"Sweet Merlin and Morganna," Minerva muttered under her breath before looking back to the others, "Will it become distressingly large while still in Hogwarts?"

"Probably in a few years," Dumbledore mused, "By Harry's fourth or fifth year, Najash will likely be too large to be comfortably shrunk enough to be hidden."

For hours after the other professors had left his office, Headmaster Dumbledore continued to muse over the problem presented to him. Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, was practically a magnet for the impossible and paradoxical. If the snake in question had belonged to anyone else, if any Slytherin in the school possessed a familiar with this large of a core; Dumbledore would have assumed the child to have committed some dark, sacrificial ritual on another wizard to achieve these results. It was actually the only answer that the aged headmaster could come up with to make a non magical snake into a familiar of this caliber, to have sacrificed the magic of another being in the process.

But not Harry, having grown up isolated in the Muggle world and with the soul of a healer. He would not even have been able to learn such a thing was possible; and would not have had access to another person's magic even if he were inclined to do such a thing. _How is Harry Potter still so powerful then?_ Dumbledore asked himself, _If he gave most of his magic to his snake, then how can he still be among the top students in his year for practical casting?_

_Unless_, Dumbledore thought as a cold chill ran down his spine, _it was not _Harry's_ magic that they were seeing in use during class?_

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"We cannot allow this charity foundation to go forward. I have not gotten all of the specific details yet, but I know enough to understand the gist of what they want. Mudbloods being given special privileges and opportunities, which will slowly leech from us the power that is ours by right. It must not be allowed." Lucius Malfoy concluded his speech to his allies concerning the last but, in his opinion, most important topic.

"What about the fact that he is making all the mudbloods he helps take a pureblood society course?" Lord Parkinson asked, "Is that not good for us, teach them their place before they go to Hogwarts and think they deserve the same treatment as real witches and wizards?"

"It is a trap." Lord Nott rebutted, "Black believes that mudbloods and purebloods are equals, his magical society courses would reinforce such nonsense and make it even harder to teach the mudbloods where they truly belong."

"Mister Malfoy, sir." Gregory Goyle Senior's tentative voice drew the blonde's attention, "'M sorry sir, but I have to stay out of this one. Won't tell anyone what you are planning, but I canno' help. And I don't think you'll get what you want."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Molly Weasley's temper notwithstanding, this will be the hardest family to sell on the scholarship." Andromeda explained as she, Sirius, and Petunia in her Ms. Acacia disguise walked up the path from the gate to the front door of the unkempt manor house. Sirius informed her right before they had apparated to the front gate that the fact that their hosts refused to update the floo ward to let them enter that way was a magical means of snubbing a guest without being explicitly impolite. Asking about another's wards was inappropriate, and some wards, though much less common, were harder to change to allow guests than others; so actually accusing the host of such was considered equally rude.

When Sirius had 'knocked' on the gate, something that he did by tapping his wand against the family crest in the center, a House Elf wearing a dirty potato sack appeared inside the property and asked them to follow him to the front door; which opened for them as they arrived. Inside the door, the mother of the girl they had come to offer a scholarship to greeted them with a tight smile and quietly escorted them into a sitting room.

"Lord Black, Regent Potter." Lord Goyle grunted at the two without standing from his seat on the other side of the room, his glare falling on each of them in turn before barely acknowledging Ms. Acacia and fixing his gaze on Sirius, "And someone I don' know. You know who I am. What do you want with my daughter, Black?"

Sirius winced at the tone of address, clearly Gregory Goyle was convinced they wanted something from him. That or he was misinterpreting why they had asked about his second child, "Well, Mister Goyle, we would like to ensure that she goes to Hogwarts like her brother."

During the few minutes the three had to wait for Goyle to regain his composure, he had choked on whatever he was drinking when Sirius made his announcement and his elf had popped in to clean up both himself and the mess, they wondered if this reaction was a good thing or a bad one.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"What do you mean you 'have to stay out'?" Lucius demanded, "You owe me! Your family would have nothing if you weren't allied with mine! I've even looked for available marriage contracts for your daughter and son!"

"Black wants to put Gina in Hogwarts, sir." Goyle answered simply, "You didn't want to do that. I asked, Mister Malfoy."

Lucius' eyes widened comically; why should they care about the education of a daughter, a second child even? It wasn't like this was the Black family, who insisted on educating everyone not born a squib as a matter of Family pride! Goyle didn't have much in the way of means outside his bloodline, but when did he start emulating the Weasleys? It isn't like she was going to be anything other than an ornament for a pureblood husband, "So you are fine with being lumped in with mudbloods?"

"I want her to have a wand." Gregory replied, fiddling with his own wand in the pocket of his robe. Without it he was basically a squib, he couldn't feel magic at all unless he had it on his person; and a lot of things that a wizard should only need to touch with a hand to activate he had to touch with his wand. "Ollivander is backin' this, you should wait before you try to shut it down."

"It seems I have some research to do." Lucius spoke when it was apparent that Goyle wasn't going to keep explaining. _He probably doesn't actually know anything else anyways_, Lucius Malfoy thought to himself, _I need to find out what is really going on with this Wolfstar Foundation; then I have to find someone who knows what Weasley is up to. The bill he was talking about proposing could be frustrating. The fact that he's kept it back for revision this long is troublesome, to say the least. At least it seems Draco has managed to stay out of trouble and keep on Potter and his mudbloods' good sides._

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Are you alright Mister Goyle?" Ms. Acacia asked when he seemed unable to get his breathing back under control, glancing at the elf in worry, "Do you need help? Should I fetch your wife?"

"Does Master Golye be needing his tonic, sir?" The elf finally asked, having been forgotten due to being so quiet, his eyes appearing even larger than they already were due to fear. He popped away instantly when his master rapidly nodded his head as his face grew redder from coughing.

Only a moment later, the little elf returned with a vial containing a faintly glowing, orange, liquid that had the viscosity of molasses. Goyle waved off the offer of assistance from his guests as he fought to keep from spilling anything while taking a quick swig of the tonic. After downing a swallow of the orange medicine he began exhaling a thin orange mist that he then re-inhaled. Each breath of the mist made his cough lessen, and after three breaths he was back to normal.

"Dragon Lung, Sir?" Andromeda asked, "If you would like to take a moment and drink something cool, we understand. I'm a healer, so I have an idea of how that feels."

"Dragon Lung?" Sirius whispered to her while Goyle drank a glass of ice water his elf brought him.

"A lasting side effect of Dragon Pox that sometimes presents itself after the Pox Cure is given." She explained, "It's very rare, and there is no way to cure it. That potion alleviates the painful episodes, but it's pretty expensive to brew since dragon saliva is an ingredient."

"If you're done talking 'bout me," Goyle said, annoyed, after finishing his water and cooling the burning sensation in his stomach a little, "I have the Lung; but my daughter is fine. No Pox or anything, she-"

"Lord Goyle, please don't misunderstand." Sirius interrupted him, "None of our families are interested in your daughter in that way. When I said we wanted to help her go to Hogwarts, that is what I meant."

"The Potter and Black Families are starting a charity foundation whose goal is to offer support so that every magical child in Britain can learn magic." Ms. Acacia added quickly, drawing his eyes to her, "One aspect of that support is a scholarship offer to attend Hogwarts for students whose financial situations would otherwise disallow it. By the way, please forgive my rudeness. I am Peony Acacia, a relation of the Potters."

The elder Goyle stared at her with a look of utter confusion as he tried to understand what she was talking about. When he replied, however, he did so to Sirius, "But what will she have to do for this then? I owe Malfoy, I don't want to owe you too; and Malfoy would not be happy if I got her a contract after he offered to look around."

"She would have to maintain good grades," Sirius answered, a little perturbed at Goyle ignoring Petunia, "and in her later years will be expected to help younger recipients of the scholarship if they need it. The Wolfstar Foundation will provide for any basic expenses associated with her schooling, as well as a few extra curricular summer courses. In particular, all the children receiving the scholarship will be receiving a wand from Ollivanders Wand Shop over the summer. We intend for the _Daily Prophet_ to be there as well, Mister Ollivander is using the opportunity to promote bringing more young witches and wizards into his shop to claim their wands."

"She could have a wand?" Mrs. Goyle's voice was heard from the door, having come to check on her husband due to his coughing, "Milord, please."

"I will handle this Annis." Lord Goyle glared at her until she retreated back out of the room and closed the door, "Is this a joke? Some trick to get me in your debt? What other families are you going to?"

Sirius shrugged at that, the other families' names would be known at some point. If not sooner, then when the event at Ollivanders happens, "I won't lie to you, we have extended the offer to the Weasley Family for their last child. The same offer we are making to you. Aside from them, the only family with a child who is the age for Hogwarts is the Oakes family. I don't know if you've heard of them, but they grow wand quality trees in Scotland. The Weasleys haven't confirmed with us yet, but the Oakes have already agreed."

It was obvious that the man was thinking, but his guests couldn't be sure if he was going to accept the offer or not by looking at him. In truth, he wasn't thinking about the offer, directly, anymore; he was thinking about the length of wood he had discreetly palmed before they entered the sitting room. A length of oak wood, Oakes Oak. Goyle still remembered how glad he was that his wand was made from the same type of wood as his father's; so excited that Ollivander had seen fit to inform him that it was the same _tree_, and where it came from. It was actually a little disappointing when his own son hadn't followed suit, instead having a willow wand.

"Do you think my Gina can do it?" He finally asked, "What if she's not smart enough? I'm not that smart; and her mother didn't get any Hogwarts, either."

"She will have help from Harry Potter and his study group." Ms. Acacia answered, causing the man to frown in annoyance.

"A study group that includes Lord Greengrass' oldest, as well as Lord Davis' child." Sirius interjected before leaning forward, "And, more recently, Draco Malfoy has been interacting with them some as well."

"And what kind of things are you going to make her learn?" Lord Goyle inquired, "I don't want you making her some muggle-lover."

"While some of those courses will be on muggle society," Andromeda answered his question while also trying to touch on the unspoken ones, "it will be focussing on how to function when among them. Things like how their money or public transit works. We also plan to use a muggle course in mathematics and basic sciences; but only because that groundwork helped Harry and his other muggleborn friends do better in Potions and Charms."

"Why does she need to know how to be a muggle?"

"I can probably answer that satisfactorily.," Ms. Acacia asserted with a glance to her two partners. Neither of them were present when she and Remus spoke with Mr. Oakes, but this would be even easier since the Goyles had a house elf to prove her correct immediately. One undoubtedly ordered not to waste money and only buy cheaper goods and groceries, "Assuming, Lord Goyle, that you call your elf and allow me to ask him a simple question."

When the elf, named 'Gonny,' arrived, Peony Acacia asked a question that had him quivering in terror as he tried not to meet his master's gaze, "Gonny, where do you buy the common fruits and vegetables that are served for Lord Goyle's meals?"

"Elf, what's the matter? Answer her!" Goyle growled at the terrified creature when he didn't answer immediately.

"I am sure that is unnecessary, Lord Goyle." Ms. Acacia demurred before looking back at Gonny, "You are not in trouble, I am trying to prove something to your master, that is all." She was pretty sure she succeeded in not wincing when calling the man a 'master'; though the reasons it happened had been explained to her, she doubted she would ever get used to the idea of a _literal _race of slaves.

"I gets the veggies and fruits from the market, miss." Gonny answered in an uncertain tone, earning a raised eyebrow from the woman that scared him yet again, "Th-th-the muggie market it is."

"Why would you bring muggle food into my house?" Goyle shouted, alarming the two women in the room as it appeared he was about to violently discipline the elf right then and there.

"Master tolds me too!" Gonny shrieked back in fear, "He says, 'Gonny, don't be's wasting moneys on expensive foods' he did!"

"If I may," Ms. Acacia interrupted the exchange, "it came to my husband's attention the last time we were in Diagon Alley that the price of those kinds of goods are a lot higher than in the muggle world. I'm not sure why it is, but it isn't like cabbage from a magical vendor is different from a muggle market."

"It be's the same, misses." Gonny added, "Wizard stores be buying muggie veggies and selling them to wizards. Fruits too! Wizards no ask, just feel better for buying from other wizards. It be's less than half in muggie store. But Gonny good elf, he no let bad wizards cheat master, I swears!"

"Lord Goyle, how much money do you think one of those storekeepers will make doing that?" Peony Acacia asked when Goyle didn't have a response to his servant's outburst, "With magic the food would never spoil, so eventually they would double their money on every restock. Families with no elf, or those who order their elves to shop only at magical grocers, would easily be tricked into paying more because they either don't want to go into the muggle world for the goods or don't know how."

Gregory Goyle Senior didn't have an answer to that, he wasn't that good at math anyways, but he could certainly tell that this was significant. _Less than half_? What else was cheaper in the muggle world? If he allowed these people to educate his daughter, he might find out.

"I'm sorry for how I reacted when you first arrived." Goyle said after taking some time to process what he had learned, "I misunderstood your interest in my Gina, and let my temper get away from me." He took a breath and continued, "I accept your offer to help my girl. If you three would like to meet her, she's upstairs in her room."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Sirius, what did he misunderstand about our intentions?" Petunia asked once they were back at Sirius' Cottage on Potter Isle.

"I didn't think about it when I made the original offer by letter like I did," he replied, "but I guess he probably assumed I wanted to pen a marriage contract for Harry and Gina; it's well known that I'm his godfather now, after all. When I showed up without Harry, he might have assumed that I was trying to continue the Black line instead."

"So he thought we were there for what? To pay him off to let you adopt his daughter?" Petunia asked, affronted.

"Not quite." Andromeda explained with a disgusted grimace, "You probably didn't want to know this, but Magical Britain has very… _relaxed_ laws on the concept of a 'marrying age.' It is very rare, but not unheard of, for lords to take wives that are still practically, or literally, children in exchange for elevating the girl's family's status. Unfortunately, the last instance of borderline-child marriage in Magical Britain was Sirius' own mother, who was fourteen when she married the then twenty-five year old Lord Black."

"They never spoke about it much, but it was because of a magical contract whose conditions hadn't been met for a couple centuries that they happened to fulfill." Sirius explained, "My parents were the most bigotted purebloods you could ever meet, but even they weren't happy with that arrangement or the system that allowed it. My father spent a lot of gold making sure there were no more 'future contracts' like that, and made it a Family policy not to contract children that hadn't been born yet."

"That such a thing was required is sickening."

"No argument there." Sirius answered.

**AN: There won't be another chapter next week, but the next chapter is actually closer to being done than originally planned. About 3/4 of the way through writing this one I realized I'd accidentally started writing the **_next_ **one instead. I'm expecting maybe 3-5 more chapters (I've said that before, lol) before closing "Book I." I fully plan on doing Book II and beyond. I even have general outlines for the next couple school years. Current plan for next chapter will have it out in the first half of next month; though I live on the beach so no writing is getting done over the Jul 4th weekend, pandemic or no.**


	38. Chapter 37: Dubious Protections

Dubious Protections

"You're going to give the professor a fit like that, Harry." Hermione admonished him as they left the Defense classroom with Neville, "It was one thing with the water jet spell last month, but you were the only one who could turn a knockback jinx into a tripping jinx. We only have a few more weeks until exams, please don't annoy him and make him not want to help us revise."

"I don't know why you couldn't do it too." Harry replied, rubbing his forehead. His scar had ached for the second half of that class, "Just focus on making the spell push only at the legs instead of the whole body; same thing as tripping."

"I tried, just like making _Aguamenti_ into a jet," she answered, frustrated, "but it didn't work. It was also really draining, even though it didn't work right, did you not feel like you were using more magic when you used the more generic spell not for its intended purpose?"

"Huh? Not really." Harry answered with a shrug.

"That's probably the most ridiculous... wait," Neville stopped and muttered under his breath for a second, "have you _ever_ been magically tired? Besides the troll thing, I mean. You cast spells all the time, you even go around and help people in the common room and demonstrate for them, and I never see you tired from it. Just the normal, 'haven't slept in a while' kind of tired."

Harry thought about it as they headed up to Gryffindor Tower, "Once, I think. When I bonded with Najash. I was out for like a day after that."

"Most of our class has had to go to Madame Pomfrey at least once this year for magical exhaustion." Hermione said, "I believe you were at Quidditch practise at the time, but I overused my magic while studying for our first Transfiguration quiz back in early October and she warned me about ignoring when I was nearing my limits."

Once in the tower, Hermione and Neville begged Harry to try and find the point where he started to notice the drain on his magic. He agreed as long as they didn't go so far they couldn't join Dudley when he went to work out before curfew; and began by casting an _Aguamenti_ spell out the open window with his off-hand so he could continue writing answers. He cancelled the spell a half-hour later to get ready to exercise and was only beginning to notice the slightest drain. His friends were amazed, but Harry wasn't sure why it seemed like his magic lasted so much longer; he hadn't really thought about it much since Halloween.

When they arrived at the empty classroom where they normally worked out, after being joined by Parvati on the way, they found Ron waiting for them, but no Dudley or Justin. The Slytherin informed them that the others were going to find a professor to ask about Justin's issues with his spells while Hermione and Neville told him about Harry's seemingly endless magical supply. Ron was just as surprised as the others by Harry's ability to hold up the water charm so long; and just a couple minutes later Harry found himself levitating a table to see if it would tire him before Dudley got there.

"I'm sure he'll understand," Hermione had consoled him, "this _is_ a school for magic. Missing one exercise session with him won't be the end of the world."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Don't worry about it Justin, Harry and Neville will understand." Dudley assured his friend as they detoured from their path to the exercise classroom to ask a professor about Justin's problems with water spells.

"Thanks Big D," Justin answered, using Harry's nickname for his cousin, "I've been worried I'll fail a practical portion of an exam because of this." As they came to the base of another staircase, he glanced sideways to his friend, "You think we could start by asking Professor Quirrell? If we climb all the way to Flitwick's office and back down I won't be doing many sit-ups after."

"Sure," Dudley chuckled, "as long as you're okay waiting for him to finish answering."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Are you kidding me?" Parvati muttered as Harry continued to casually lean against a wall while levitating the desk, "It's been like ten minutes."

"Merlin's beard," Neville said as he stretched out after finishing his warmup, "how are you standing?"

"I don't know, it's not really that hard." Harry answered before gesturing with his empty hand, "I wonder if it's a question of size?" More desks began lifting from the side of the room, one by one, until Harry began to strain on the third one, and dropped them all in a mess after trying to pick up a sixth. "Whoah," he hissed as they clattered to the floor, "that was a bad idea."

"Harry, that was amazing!" Hermione gushed, "After holding the Aguamenti charm for so long before coming, too!"

"Ugh, I need to stop for a minute after that." He answered as he sat down beside his bookbag, "I wonder what's taking Dudley so long? You think he got held up somewhere else?"

"Maybe," Ron answered, snapping out of his stupor at Harry's display of magic, "you want to go look for him?"

"Or you could just check the Map." Hermione offered, before covering her mouth as she realized that Parvati and Ron didn't know about the heirloom.

To say Ron was annoyed at not being told about it before was an understatement, "No wonder you always knew when I was in trouble first term!" He shouted angrily before calming back down, "Where is that though? It looks like Justin and Professor Quirrel are still with him."

Harry frowned as he studied the Map. Between staircases that moved and rooms that were in different places at different times of the day or year, it was sometimes hard to read what the map was saying since many rooms were depicted separate from the main structure to allow them to fit when they changed locations. The further an area was from the central areas that were trafficked by students, the more likely it was to wander a little.

"No, what are they doing?" Harry exclaimed as he stood up, _Hermione was right!_ "Look! That's under the forbidden corridor! It's right under the trapdoor in the Cerberus' room!"

"Wait!" Hermione shouted, trying to stop him as he bolted out the door, "Harry!" She turned to the others, "Someone go tell a professor, I'll try and stop him."

"I'm faster than you two, I'll go help Hermione catch Harry." Ron said, running out behind her and shouting back over his shoulder, "Go get help."

"Oh crap." Neville said, realizing what Harry thought was happening, "Hermione's been saying he was bad news since the beginning of the first term."

"Tell me about it while we go find Professor Mcgonagal!" Parvati shot back at him as she pushed him out the door. Unfortunately they had not made it more than a dozen steps before something tripped her and she hit her head.

"Hello squib," A Slytherin's voice mocked Neville as he fumbled for a wand he had forgotten in the classroom, "going somewhere?"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"A harp?" Hermione whispered behind Harry, causing him to jump and cover his mouth not to shout.

The cerberus was sleeping peacefully on the floor beside an open trapdoor, a full size harp magically playing a soft melody nearby. Clearly the myth of Orpheus was based on a true story, as the three heads were snoring in something approximating the meter of the song; it would have been cute if the dog wasn't big enough to just about eat them whole.

"They went down through the trapdoor." Harry whispered back to her and Ron when he turned around, "Is someone getting a professor?"

"Neville and Parvati are." Ron answered, "Lets just step out into the hall and wait Harry, we don't know what else is down there."

"What if Dudley's in trouble?" Harry asked, "We should keep going, and just be quiet unless something happens or we get a chance to grab them. They're ahead of us, so if there's any other traps or monsters then Quirrell will take care of them. Either that or we'll need to be there to get Justin and Dudley out of there."

"Are you daft?" Ron shot back angrily, "I get that you're a Gryff, but now isn't the time for heroes mate."

"Ron I-"

"Guys!" Hermione hissed.

"-gotta help Dudley. He's always looked out for me."

"Guys! Move!" Hermione shouted as she pushed them into the trapdoor and jumped behind them just as a pair of jaws snapped at her, "You loudmouths woke up the dog!"

When the three friends hit the floor, it wasn't the expected hard impact but rather a squishy, springy mess of plants they fell upon. The three heard the dog barking at them through the open trapdoor, the only light in the room, but couldn't hear the harp anymore; whatever transfiguration had created it probably wore off.

"What is this stuff?" Ron shouted as he tried to move and got tangled in the large mass of vines covering the floor, "I think it's grabbing me!"

"Devil's Snare!" Hermione shouted back, "There's a spell that can-"

"Wait!, just stop moving!" Harry shouted over her, "Najash says we're still in the air! Relax and the Devil's Snare will let us go!"

Harry fell through the web of vines first, falling a further five feet but emerging unharmed. Hermione fell after him, though Ron took a moment to calm down before he relaxed enough to also pass through the net composed of dangerous plants. The space beneath the Snare was dimly illuminated by what looked like bioluminescent mushrooms.

"Look there." Hermione said once she'd righted herself and begun looking around the room, pointing to a barely visible rune etched into the stone wall just beneath the level of the Devil's Snare before drawing her finger around to several other locations where that rune was, "I bet those keep the Snare from extending to the floor."

"I can't light my wand." Ron whined, "Is there something here that messes with our magic?"

"No, I can still feel my magic." Harry replied, taking note of the fact that there were multiple different kinds of runes on the walls, "It's probably just light and fire spells that can't be used. I'd bet there are runes up there for that as well as holding the plant in place."

As the trio gathered their wits and located the door, Harry contemplated the 'trap,' above them. It was actually pretty scary, the normal answer to Devil's Snare was to blast it with light, preferably sunlight, or fire; a wizard who found those spells not working under pressure could easily panic and get themselves strangled without realizing that they are still suspended above the ground. What's more, the plant's natural response to stop constricting when the victim stops struggling would mean the plant is actually relatively safe like this. It's more common to die while unconscious, suffocating _under _the plant, than while it was actively strangling you since it wasn't generally strong enough to damage the windpipe; and that wouldn't happen here.

"This place is giving me the creeps." Ron continued complaining.

"Let's go into the next room," Harry offered, "hopefully there's some light in there."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Blimey Harry, I reckon you could outfly anything." Ron exclaimed after Harry stood back up on shaky legs, "You can look now Hermione, he's alright."

The second trap wasn't nearly as clever as the first, at first glance it was just a room filled with winged keys that had been enchanted to float. There was probably some kind of trick to figuring out which key was the right one, but since there was only one key hobbling around on a broken wing it wasn't a bother; there was even a broom resting in a stand nearby. The only hiccup had been when every key in the room _except_ the correct one had spontaneously turned on Harry and begun flying at him trying to unseat him as soon as he mounted the broom in the room. Though he'd been cut on the face several times, causing Hermione to look away and shut her eyes, Harry had managed to not only nick the correct key, but also roll off the broom safely. Once he was unseated the keys left him alone.

"I don't know about 'alright.'" Harry said woozily.

"The adrenaline from before is wearing off." Hermione asserted as she returned Najash to him, "You're exhausted after using magic nonstop for the last hour, we should just hide and wait for whoever Neville and Parvati find to come and get us."

"We need to at least look and see what the next test is." Ron insisted, "Otherwise why did Harry get himself cut up grabbing that key?"

_~You are hurt, Harry, and you are tired. Why do you not wait?~_

_ ~I have a bad feeling. Hermione and I have both thought there was something wrong with the professor who has Dudley at different times this year. I should have taken you to meet him, you would have known what was off, but his class would have been dangerous for you.~_

"It's like this was made for me!" Ron giddily shouted when they opened the door to the next room and found a gigantic stone chess set. The two Gryffindors glanced at each other behind him, it _was_ awfully suspicious that the three 'traps' so far had been designed with an intentional way past; and neither of them had failed to notice that Ron had called the keys a 'test.'

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Molly Weasley was fuming in the family room while her husband and only daughter discussed this _scholarship_ with Petunia Dursley and Remus Lupin. Arthur hadn't wanted her advice or input, and sent her out after her third muttered comment about charity and how it would look to their friends. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Ginny was being informed of exactly what would be expected of her if she accepted the opportunity.

"So I have to take a class on muggles?" She asked, "Why?"

"Well," Petunia answered, "we are hoping to open up new opportunities. Many magicals consider anything non magical to be a completely different world; we want to show you that it isn't as different as you think." She leaned forward a little and whispered conspiratorially, "And if you spend some time away from magic you might even be able to figure out wandless casting before school like Harry and Dudley."

"Really?" Ginny asked with wide eyes, getting a nod from Petunia. It was unlikely that she would be away from magic for long enough to have an impact, but that wouldn't stop them from trying.

"Oh yes, and if your father would like to join you for the non magical courses this summer he's more than welcome." Remus added with a nod to the man.

"I may just take you up on that." Arthur Weasley said with a grin, before composing himself and bowing his head slightly, "We can't thank you enough for this. My wife and I-"

"ARTHUR!" Molly shouted from the other room, "IT'S RON, COME QUICKLY!"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Ron, what are you talking about?" Hermione shrieked, "You're going to get yourself killed!"

"Just trust me," Ron said from atop the stone horse of a knight, "If I put the king in check they have to take me, then Harry moves two spaces and it's checkmate."

Harry and Hermione couldn't believe they had agreed to this. They had briefly forgotten that they were in the magical world, and so forgotten the biggest difference between normal chess and what they played here. In Wizard's Chess the pieces were alive; and destroyed each other when they were taken. Hermione had almost "cheated" the first time a piece was destroyed when she had to dodge flying debris. The pieces on their own side had brandished weapons at her and threatened her if she attempted to "impune their honour" again.

"I thought you said it wasn't the time for heroes!" Harry shouted back at him; this was a terrible idea.

"We're gonna lose if we don't do this." Ron returned.

"How did I let you talk me into this." Hermione muttered, not really needing a reminder. There had been some hectic movement on the Map from the three they were following while they argued over letting Ron try the chess board just for fun; Harry was worried that it looked sort of like Quirrell had attacked the other two. The fact that no adult had caught up with them yet wasn't inspiring confidence at the moment, either. Neville and Parvati had only just arrived at Professor Mcgonagall's office, with Daphne and Tracey for some reason, so that was a long ways away.

Before his friends could try to talk him out of it again, Ron called for his horse to move, and as soon as it was finished he was attacked by the other queen. With two strikes from her giant scepter, the opposing queen shattered the stone horse from under Ron; she then grabbed him, still dazed, by the robe and threw him off the board.

"Hermione, no! Stop!" Harry shouted. She had made to run to Ron, but the direction was a legal move for her piece, "If you step off your square it won't have mattered, just let me end the game!"

"Checkmate!" Harry shouted when he was in position. The king dropped his sword upon the board and all the other pieces became passive. As soon as it was apparent they weren't going to be hurt, the pair ran to check on Ron, who was moaning in pain and delirium and bleeding from a cut on his head.

"Harry, this is crazy!" Hermione yelled at him, fighting not to cry in frustration, "Something must have happened with Neville and Parvati for them to have only gotten to Professor Mcgonagall during the chess game, we need a teacher!"

"Let me look at the Map again and see where the professors are." He answered after making sure the wound on Ron's head wasn't too deep, it was also apparent from the angle it was resting at that his ankle was broken, "I'm not even sure we _have_ a way back without help, how do you plan to get past the Devil's Snare?"

Professors Mcgonagall and Snape were both on their way, one floor above the forbidden corridor now, but that wasn't what caused Harry to push Hermione down onto Ron and throw his invisibility cloak over them while shushing her frantic questions and Ron's cry of pain. Professor Quirrell was about to come back through the door into the chess room; and he was coming alone.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Over there!" Tracey pointed out a closet to her friend. Though they couldn't hear any sounds coming from it, the door was shaking like someone was banging on it from the inside.

"There's a wand stuck in that suit of armor." Daphne added, pointing to the length of wood, barely visible, sticking through the eye slit of the armor's helmet before drawing her own wand and pointing it at the door as she advanced. "The idiot must have walked back alone even after we warned him what those boys were planning. _Finite Incantatum, Alohomora._"

"Wait, _Longbottom? Patil?_" Daphne jumped back as the door exploded open and the two Gryffindors practically fell out of it, "What are you doing in there? I thought it was Weasley."

"Oh thank Merlin!" Parvati shouted, "Tell me they left my wand, please."

"They didn't take it." Tracey said, pointing to the suit of armor, while Daphne asked Neville why he was in such a hurry to get away.

"Harry think's Dudley is in trouble. He ran to help and Hermione and Ron chased after him." Neville answered in a breathless rush before explaining that he'd left his wand in his bag back in the classroom they were in and that's why they couldn't get out of the closet, "We need to get a Professor. Mcgonagall's office is pretty close."

On the way Neville and Parvati were able to fill the others in a little about what was happening, though they didn't have an explanation for how Harry knew Dudley was in trouble that didn't involve the Map. The two Gryffindors were ready to scream by the time their head of house finally got to her door after they knocked on it. That Professor Snape was with her in the office with her caused them to pause momentarily before each tried to shout their explanation over the other. The professors looked ready to give detentions, but Tracey slammed a hand on each of the Gryff's shoulders to get them under control and told Neville to explain what needed to be said.

"We can talk about your students' misconduct after we check on Mister Potter and the others." Mcgonagall told Snape after they'd heard the story, "But seriously, Professor Quirrell? He is harmless, the poor man has been a model professor since the Halloween incident."

"It was on Harry's Map." Neville replied, frustrated that he also had to tell Snape about it, "We all saw it, ma'am; the Map shows where everyone in the castle is at any time. Quirrell took Dudley and Justin into the forbidden corridor past the Cerberus."

"It is impossible to make a map of Hogwarts." Professor Mcgonagall asserted.

"Harry's father made it with his friends," Neville explained quickly, "it works, I swear. We need to go, maybe even get Dumbledore first."

"The Headmaster is not here." Snape drawled, internally furious at the existence of Potter's map. _So _that_ was how Potter and Black were always able to avoid being caught. _"He was called away to the Ministry with little notice and will not be returning until morning. Minerva, we should go; the Headmaster and I have had reason this term to suspect that Quirrell is not as trustworthy as he seems."

"Well why didn't you say that first, are you daft?" She shouted back at him, "Children, please go to the Hospital Wing and inform Madam Pomfrey that she might have some injured students coming to her. Professor Snape and I shall go collect the others."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"I'm afraid I don't understand." Petunia said as she tried to make sense of what the woman was frantically pointing to, a grandfather clock in the corner with entirely too many hands on it, "Oh my! How does one even read that clock?"

She didn't need the brief explanation she was given; after asking she took a step forward to get a better look and realized for herself. Each of the hands was labeled with a name, and the end of each had a smiling face with a ginger mop of hair magically printed on it. The face of the clock was divided into sections such as "At Home," or "Travelling." The hand that sported Ron's name, however, was positioned firmly in the division labeled "Injured."

"How badly hurt do you have to be for it to label you as 'Injured?'" Petunia asked.

"At least a broken bone," Arthur answered quietly, having pushed Ginny back into the kitchen, "I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will have him right as rain."

"Perhaps you should go to the school and check on him, Arthur?" Remus offered, "I'm sure Ron would appreciate it, as would Molly."

"I don't know…"

"You can come back and tell us what happened over dinner." Petunia offered.

_DONG!_ Ron's hand on the clock changed, and the device began chiming a low, mournful sounding bell in regular intervals. Before she could check how the new division was labeled, Petunia was forced to reach out and catch Molly Weasley and guide her to the ground.

"She fainted?" Petunia whispered as chaos ensued around her. Both Remus and Arthur were gathering coats and preparing to floo to Hogsmeade.

"Mrs. Dursley, I'm so sorry about Molly," Arthur said as he glanced in frustration at his unconscious wife, "she has just been rather stressed these last few days. I must ask you to please watch over my Ginny." He added as he readied the floo powder, "Thank you for offering to come with me Remus."

As Remus left with an apologetic look at the unconscious Molly, Petunia finally thought to look at the clock again. Ron's hand was in easily the worst position imaginable. Why would that even _be_ on there?

_Mortal Peril_.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Positive elem-m-mental affinities, where a wizard-d casts spells of th-that element more eas-s-sily, are rare." The Professor explained to Justin while Dudley checked out his iguana behind them, "N-negative affinities, w-where the spell is harder, are more c-common."

"So I probably just have a negative one for water?" Justin asked, secretly he was hoping that it meant he was strong at another element. Most of the year was convinced that that was the case for Seamus Finnegan, who conjured fire pretty much every time he messed up a spell.

"M-most likely Mister F-f-Finch-Fletchley." Quirrell agreed, "Th-these things are addressed in your se-second year. Sometimes it go-goes away, so we wait to see if that happens f-f-first before taking action."

"So he shouldn't have a problem in his practical exams?" Dudley asked.

"No, I sh-should think not."

"Thanks for coming with me 'D.'" Justin said after thanking the professor and making for the door.

"Hey, we're Hufflepuffs; it's what we do." Dudley joked back, "Thank you Professor!"

The only warning Dudley got that something was wrong before Justin was struck in the back by a red spell was a strange syllabant whisper from behind him and a sudden shocking feeling on his wrist from his wand. When he spun around to see what was happening his wand shot a knockback jinx while still holstered that pushed Quirrell, who had his wand drawn, off his feet.

Quirrell quickly righted himself with his wand in-hand, but he was expecting the boy to either be paralyzed in shock or running in fear and thus be an easy target. Instead, Dudley charged the professor, getting inside his wand-reach and punching him in the face before he could stutter a second spell. Quirrell moaned as he staggered under Dudley's fist, but tried to realign his wand; eliciting an attempted second strike from the first year.

His fist didn't connect again, going wide as he heard something that filled him in terror where the prospect of a violent teacher didn't. He hit the floor where the sound seemed to come from, but found nothing except bruised knuckles.

"_Fool, you let a child besssst you!_" Came a voice, seemingly from right behind the professor. Dudley didn't get a chance to punch again, as he felt an incredible weight hold him in place.

"I'm s-s-s-orry, master!" Quirrell grovelled as he got back to his feet and took over the spell that was holding Dudley in place. He was even more awed as he realized what had happened; his master had cast a wandless, silent spell without even being able to see his target! Standing back up with his wand trained on Dudley to keep him in place, Quirrell addressed the boy, "If you do not want your friend to be hurt, you will be silent and come with me."

Without releasing Dudley from the spell holding him, Quirrell turned to Justin and undid the stunning spell before immediately incanting, "_Imperio._" Knowing what that spell was from his cousin and mum, Dudley realized his friend wasn't about to try and help him escape.

"_Silencio_." Quirrell added, pointing his wand at Dudley now, "You will walk in front of me, we are going to the forbidden corridor. If you try and escape, or make a scene, I will kill your friend. Do you understand?"

As soon as he completed the question Dudley felt the weight holding him lessen on his neck and head; but between the creepy voice from the back of the professor's head and the fact that he was no longer stuttering, he couldn't find the courage to do more than nod.

"_Expeliarmus,_" Quirrell cast at Justin, catching the wand that launched from the boy's pocket before turning his wand back to Dudley and doing the same, only to have no wand come to him. Was thatknockback jinx _wandless? Only Potter managed to cast a Defense spell like that_! "Where is your wand boy?" He asked, releasing the silencing spell temporarily.

"Uh, it's in the room where we exercise!" Dudley lied, crying out and screwing his eyes shut in fear when the Professor brought his face close enough to the first year that he was gagging on the garlic smell. Thankfully, whatever spell was holding him in place meant that his arm hadn't even twitched when his wand holster tried to fly towards the teacher; but that _hurt_.

"Hmm," Quirrell mused, "very well. Do as I say, and do not make a fuss, and nothing bad will happen to you."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Standing off to the side as Professor Quirrell made sure the troll was thoroughly unconscious, and having now been taken past several of the "traps and protections" on what was supposed to be a "_priceless artefact that made you immortal_", Dudley was beyond confident that all of this was some kind of trick or setup._ Devil's Snare, flying keys that could apparently be frozen in place with a single spell, and a friggin' chess set_? Dudley could already imagine the tirade his father was going to go on when he heard about this!

"Come boy," the professor said as he directed Justin, still under mind control, to follow him towards the next room, "Severus' room is the only one left before the end."

The professor insisted that the three of them enter the room at almost the same time, which confused Dudley until a green fire filled the doorway behind them followed by a second fire engulfing the doorway to the next room, this one a black flame rather than green. For the first time since walking into the room with the cerberus, Quirrell paused and actually examined the trap.

He had casually put the giant dog to sleep with music from an enchanted harp before casting a light spell into the room under the trap door to scare off the Devil's Snare for a moment as he pushed the students in and jumped behind, casting a cushioning charm as they dropped, then instantly frozen all the keys in the next room so he could pass. Then, _then_, rather than play the chess board he had just blasted the crown off the opposing king with a spell, causing all the pieces to stop until the crown could be put back. Dudley huffed as he thought about how ridiculous this all was, _why would you put in such an easy way to skip all the traps? That's so dumb! And why _these_ traps?_

There were a bunch of different vials and chalices on a table in the room, but the professor was quietly reading a sheet of parchment aloud that was laid in the midst of them, "I thought you said you'd been through all these rooms already, what gives?" Dudley asked when the silence began getting to him; he had noticed the silencing spell had worn off in the chess room.

"Severus is much more cautious and thorough than the others." The professor answered; shocking Dudley, who expected to just get yelled at like the last time he tried to speak, "I almost poisoned myself at Christmas because I didn't expect him to change things. Since then, he's rearranged the potions and rewritten the clue to be more difficult several times now."

The Hufflepuff could tell by his tone that Quirrell wouldn't brook further conversation, and stayed silent. But a few moments later the professor picked up the smallest vial, maybe containing an ounce of liquid, and let out a sigh after examining it for a moment, "Clever, Severus. Too clever."

With the vial in hand, he walked over to Justin and poured the contents into his mouth, "Do not swallow this until I tell you to," he commanded the boy who was still under his magical thrall before offering the vial to Dudley, "and you do the same. Do not empty the vial, or I will kill your friend."

Once Dudley had complied, but not without a glare from Quirrell when it looked like he might drain the entire vial anyway, the professor took it back and waited for the fluid to refill. Severus had enchanted the bottle to stop refilling if it was completely emptied, but this one was also enchanted to alert him if that happened. Clearly he suspected that someone was getting past the test and was upgrading it whenever he found time.

"Swallow and walk forwards, now." Quirrell said as he took a small swig of the potion in the vial and pushed the boys to walk faster into the fire.

Dudley closed his eyes again as he was forced to walk into the black fire, but never felt the burning that he was sure was going to come. A moment later he opened his eyes and saw the final protection for the Philosopher's Stone, one he had been told about by Harry and Hermione back in December.

The Mirror of Erised.


	39. Chapter 38: The Philosopher's Stone

**AN: I edited the last chapter, fixing the incantation for the Imperius curse to the correct "Imperio."**

The Philosopher's Stone

"Remus, I didn't think about this, but will the front gate even be open?" Arthur Weasley gasped out as he chased after the other man; he was definitely not as physically fit as Lupin was, and they couldn't apparate but _so_ close to Hogwarts, even from as nearby as Hogsmeade, without risking hitting the wards.

"Good poi-oh my." Remus was prepared to agree with him, but he saw a speck of white heading towards them at rapid speed, "Hedwig!"

"Harry Potter's owl?" Arthur asked, remembering the name from one of his conversations with Ron.

"She's all of theirs." Remus answered as the snowy owl landed on his outstretched arm, "They're in danger aren't they?" He asked the owl, who nodded to him, "Please go get Hagrid's attention, hurry!"

The owl knew something was wrong with her wizards and witch, but they always seemed to get into danger when they were inside the school and too far for her to reach. Perhaps if she helped the wolf-wizard that helped care for them then they would stop paying so little attention to her!

Hedwig was familiar with Hagrid, the giant-wizard who brought her to her wizards, and knew that he would be in his hut. Following her own instincts as much as the magic of Post Owls, Hedwig flew to the window near Hagrid's kitchen and began rapidly pecking at it. As soon as he opened the window with a 'what in the blazes?' Hedwig swooped in and grabbed him by the beard with her talons, attempting to drag him to the door.

"Whatsa matter, Hedwig?" The giant man asked as he struggled to grab a coat as the bird refused to stop pulling on his face, "Somthin' goin' on?"

Following the bird at a jog once she had dragged him outside, Hagrid came to the front gates of Hogwarts, which were locked, at the same time that Remus and Arthur were arriving on the other side. Hearing the two men shouting at him to open the gate, Hagrid obliged and followed while they explained what the Weasley clock had told them.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Professor Quirrell was crazy, there was no other explanation for what Dudley was having to go through at the moment. The professor in question had ordered Justin to stand still next to the Mirror while he, himself, stood with his back to it. Dudley waited nearby, watching the man as he faced the door they had come in from. Quirrell looked like he was in pain, gritting his teeth and wincing every now and then, but Dudley couldn't figure out what he was _doing_. The Hufflepuff thought he felt magic come from the professor and the Mirror every now and then, but it felt… wrong somehow.

Not that looking into a mirror and not seeing the room reflected back at you wasn't wrong. When Dudley looked into the mirror he saw himself in Auror robes, with his friends and family around him seemingly congratulating him, but there was a Cerberus puppy sitting on the floor beside him leaning against his leg. _I guess that's a pretty good 'heart's desire,'_ Dudley mused, _I bet a Cerberus familiar would be awesome._

"_It isss done._ _The Headmassster isss blinded._" The _other voice_ spoke, causing Dudley to jump and look around, once again it sounded like it had come from directly behind Professor Quirrell. Was there someone hiding under an invisibility cloak right behind him? Why?

He didn't get too much longer to think about it, as the voice continued instructing Quirrell, "_Use the boy, exssplain his role._"

"I already know what's in the Mirror." Dudley answered, keeping his eyes open for any indication of where the other person was, "Why do _you _want the Philosopher's Stone?"

While the professor stuttered through his instructions about how the Mirror's enchantment worked, ignoring the boy's question, Dudley glanced back and forth between Quirrell and Justin. His friend had blinked his eyes several times while the professor was distracted earlier, more than the unnaturally long time he was keeping them open before, which Dudley took to mean he might be coming out of the mind control. When the other professors inevitably got here he would need to be fast and get Justin down and out of the way.

"Master, there is a problem, other professors are likely soon to ar-r-_rive_." Quirrell stated fearfully, interrupting himself from explaining things to the boy. Dursley wasn't lying about knowing about the Stone and Mirror, and was practically shouting his thoughts now while he tried to keep his eyes on the professor. Quirrell's Master was furious, and his anger was _pain_.

"_I sssee. Potter wass expecting him."_ The voice that kept making Dudley's spine shiver spoke again, causing Quirrell to cringe in pain, "_Hurry then, prepare the contract._"

"What?"

"Silence boy." Quirrell hissed, "The enchantment on the M-mirror is unbreakable; you cannot-t-take the Philosopher's S-stone if you want it for yourself. I _need_ the S-stone, my Master needs it as well, and if I threatened y-y-you to get it then _you_ would need it." The Defense professor took a steadying breath, and Dudley assumed that using a bunch of magic like this while holding a mind-control spell wasn't easy, "However, what if you are getting it for someone else, with no use for it of your own and n-no promise of re-w-_ward_?"

"Yeah, but I know if I don't you'll kill me." Dudley answered, quickly grasping why the professor had wanted the two of them. With confidence he _definitely_ didn't feel, he continued, "Even if you threaten Justin, there's no way you won't hurt us after you get what you want."

"This will fix that for us," Quirrell returned as he pulled out a rolled sheet of parchment. He may not have been able to get the prize he was after last year when he broke into Gringotts, but he certainly hadn't left empty-handed, "Enchanted C-contract paper, safer than a true o-oath. With this, I will be unable to harm you even after I have the Stone."

"Huh?"

"Read it." Quirrell said, holding out the parchment so that the text on it could be read. It was a bare-bones promise by 'the undersigned' to not inflict harm or injury upon the person specified in the text, which had a blank for a name to be added, "I will add y-your name here, then sign it with a Blood Quill, the contract is written to last a year and a d-d-day. You know what it is. I saw P-P-Potter use one early f-first term."

"Why don't you have anything I have to do in it?" Dudley asked, getting a dismissive scoff from the professor.

"Fool, then you would not be here for no p-personal reason." Quirrell hissed as he took out the Blood Quill and filled in the two blanks on the contract. The parchment glowed gold for a moment once it was signed, which Dudley knew from his mum was how magic contracts were sealed, "Now, you will get the Stone, or your friend will die."

While maneuvering Dudley to position him in front of the Mirror, Quirrell placed himself on the opposite side of the boy from Justin. The first year had hoped to use this opportunity to maybe push Justin out of the way and try to get the professor now that he wasn't allowed to fight back; but his hopes were dashed by the stupid Mirror and his own racing mind. For just a moment while Quirrell's wand was trained on Justin, Dudley's thoughts zeroed on how he needed to get the Stone to protect his friend; and in that moment the Mirror of Erised changed to a reflection of Dudley as he was now. The reflection patted a pocket on his robe, and Dudley felt a weight in that same pocket of the robe he was wearing. _Crap._

"Well?" Quirrell insisted, taking a step towards Dudley, "How do you get the Stone, boy?"

"_He hasss it, take it._"

That time, with Quirrell practically breathing on him, there was no mistaking where the other voice came from. It wasn't someone standing behind him, it was as though Quirrell had a second mouth on the back of his head. _Is that what's under the turban_? Dudley wondered as he tried to think of what to do.

As soon as Dudley saw the professor begin to move his wand, the Mirror had begun reflecting the room as it was once the Stone was in his pocket, he kicked the man's shin and jumped forward to grab Justin and pull him behind the Mirror. He was just in time, Quirrell launched a sickly yellow spell at the space where Justin had been a moment ago before firing a second time while trying to track the Hufflepuffs' movement. He ended up striking the Mirror and having to dive out of the way of his own Bone-Breaker curse. _How in Merlin's name did Dumbledore manage to add an enchantment to the Mirror?_ Quirrell's mind reeled as he tried to understand his spell reflecting._ It's practically impervious to magic!_

"_Ssstop you fool! The Contract!"_

"Boy, you don't un-_n-n_derstand your position." Quirrel stuttered at the pair behind the Mirror. Refocusing on his increasingly tenuous hold on the other Hufflepuff, Quirrell commanded, "Come out from behind there, and stand where I can see you."

While he listened to Dudley struggle to hold his friend down behind the barricade, he couldn't risk personally getting involved in the altercation or he could violate the contract, Quirrell took the opportunity to once again curse his situation. The wards of the school would detect if he recast the unforgivable here; the rune array he used in his office to escape notice wouldn't reach him this far away. It had to be small to avoid detection by Dumbledore.

On the other side of the Mirror of Erised, Dudley was using his bulk and muscle to hold down his friend while trying to figure out what to do. At this rate Justin was going to slip away from him or get himself really hurt while trying. _Harry has to have realized we're missing and checked the Map by now_, he thought to himself, or rather _hoped_. Taking the Philosopher's Stone out of his pocket, difficult while holding his friend down, he finally decided to knee Justin in the head, dazing him so much that not even the Imperius could make him get up, and hurled the Stone at the wall beside the room's entrance with a shouted, "You want it? TAKE IT!"

The panic Quirrell experienced in seeing his prize fly past him at speed was sufficient to shatter his concentration on the Imperius curse; but he was still able to react fast enough to strike the wall, then the floor, with cushioning charms since the Stone itself would not be able to be affected by magic like that. Deciding that the children weren't worth the risk of being captured, the professor made the decision to run for the Stone. However he fell on his face just before reaching it when a knockback jinx hit him in the back.

Glancing back over his shoulder, Quirrell saw a smirking Dudley Dursley leaning out from behind the Mirror with his wand in hand, "Curs-sed boy, my Master will not forget this."

"_Take the Ssstone and go. He and Potter will be the first to die when I have a body again." _Dudley's blood ran cold when he heard the other voice say that. _Was _Voldemort _actually in the room with them? How?_ "_We will dissscusss how the boy kept hisss wand from you later."_

Once the professor exited the room Dudley turned to take care of Justin. The other boy was moaning on the ground, both from pain and from confusion.

"Whathabloody… urgh, what happened?"

"Sorry Justin, I had to hit you pretty hard." Dudley apologized as he pulled his friend into a hug, "He was gonna kill you man."

"Was I… How did we get here?" Justin looked around groggily.

"Professor Quirrell is a Death Eater." Dudley answered, his voice beginning to quiver as his adrenaline wore off, "He put you under mind control, he needed us so he could get the Philosopher's Stone. It was in this mirror, he has it now."

"Blimey," Justin responded with wide eyes, "and you protected me? Thank you so much 'D."

"That's not the worst part." Dudley whispered, realization of what could happen now setting in, "I think Voldemort was here too. _He _has the Stone."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The three wizards knew there was something wrong when they opened the main doors to the entrance hall of Hogwarts and found no one there to greet them. The wards of the school would inform the Headmaster and his Deputy if guests arrived through the front gates, even this late, so the only reason that no one would be here is if there was an incident that kept them.

Remus went from worried to downright frightened when the hall reverberated with an almighty _CRACK_ of apparition so loud and forceful that it actually knocked the winded Arthur Weasley off his feet. Once the ringing in his ears and the pain in his eyes from the pressure wave wore off a few moments later he was able to see what had caused it. Albus Dumbledore was now standing in the middle of the hall, holding a broomstick and breathing heavily where he had just exerted himself.

_If Albus is only just getting here, then this is even worse than I feared,_ Remus thought to himself as he asked,"Headmaster, are you alright?"

Noticing the three in the hall with him, Dumbledore nodded and gathered himself to begin moving, "Follow me please Remus, Hagrid, I don't know the situation but I will probably need your help. Whatever you required will have to wait, there is an intruder in the forbidden part of the castle. Arthur, please go inform Madam Pomfrey that her services may be required."

Quickly catching up with the Headmaster, along with Hagrid and Arthur, Remus answered, "I think we might be here about the same thing, the Weasleys' clock indicated Ronald was in danger. Where were you?"

"I was called away to the Ministry, which I now believe was a false summons to get me out of the castle." Dumbledore replied as he began moving more quickly, finally getting over the drain of apparating through the wards. He may be _allowed_ to apparate through them, but they were still so thick that it was like pushing through molasses, not to mention the distance he'd travelled, "Fawkes had a burning day only two days ago."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

When he saw Quirrell returning on the Map, Harry acted without thinking; pushing Hermione onto Ron and throwing his invisibility cloak over them before running to hide behind a chess piece and hissing to Najash. His only priority was making sure that Dudley was fine, even if the professor had the Stone he would still have to get by the two professors. He was pretty sure he'd seen the Headmaster's name just _appear_ on the Map before he dropped it, but if they were right about the professor here then it wasn't going to be as simple as hiding as he passed by. While waiting for the man to move after the door opened, Harry heard the professor talking to himself.

"Master, something is wr-wr_ong_." The Defense teacher said, confusing those listening, "It is still the Chess-s-s-Set."

Though he couldn't make out what was said, Harry was confident that there was a reply. It sounded like hissing, almost like someone _pretending_ to speak Parseltongue. He didn't get to think too much on it, as the low-grade headache he'd had since passing through the Devil's Snare was getting worse.

"Of course, Master." Quirrell said a few moments later, confirming Harry's suspicion that there was somehow another person. Unfortunately, the next thing out of the professor's mouth caused a gasp from Harry before he could catch himself, "P-p-p-Potter! I know you are th-th-there!"

As soon as the sound escaped his mouth Harry was forced to dive forward to avoid debris as the pawn he was hiding behind shattered under spellfire. Harry's spirits lifted for a moment, as all the other white pieces turned to attack the professor; but the man swiftly poked his wand at the king, casting a spell that knocked off it's crown. Immediately after the crown fell off the king's head all the other pieces froze in place while the giant stone king fumbled around trying to pick his crown off the floor.

"C-come out, Potter!" The Professor called, as he resumed stalking forward, "I-I don't want-t to-"

Quirrell didn't get to finish saying what he didn't want to do. Najash, taking advantage of the chance provided by the professor passing by him, struck out from a chess piece he had climbed. Unaware of the danger, and not expecting a snake, of all things, to attack him, Quirrell failed to react before the serpent had wrapped around his wand hand and begun constricting. The professor screamed in pain, then frustration and fear as he felt his wand _snap_ in his hand, followed by a few of the bones in his fingers.

_~Foolish serpent! How dare you strike a Speaker! Attack the boy, and I won't kill you for this!~_

"Master, m-m-m-my wand!"

Harry, who had been in the process of crawling behind another chess piece, froze in shock at hearing Parseltongue come from Professor Quirrell. Though that meant he was in a position to hear Najash's response, and also what came after.

_~False Speaker! You will never poison my wizard again!~ _Najash hissed back as he slithered away while Quirrell stumbled in pain.

"_Let me facccce the boy_." Harry heard the hissing voice more clearly now, like the speaker couldn't properly switch back to English and extended all the s's, "_And hissss impertinent pet_."

"But master, w-w-we need to hurry." Quirrell protested before crying out in pain anew.

_"There isss time for thisssss_."

Accepting that his master was only going to get angry if he didn't comply, Quirrell turned his back to Harry Potter as he quickly unraveled the turban he had worn all year with his one good hand. The gasp of fear he heard from Potter was almost satisfying enough to let him ignore the pain in his broken fingers.

"Harry Potter…"

Harry almost threw up at the sight of a _second face _attached to the back of Quirrell's head. Dudley hadn't been kidnapped by a servant of Voldemort, it was Voldemort himself!

"Ssssee what I have become?" Voldemort continued, his voice no longer muffled by the turban, but broken by anger, "Mere Sshhadow and vapor… I have form only when I can sshhare another'sss body… but there have alwaysss been thossse willing to let me into their heartssss and mindsss… and onccce I have the Elixxxir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own."

The grotesque face took a breath and appeared to calm. Harry briefly wondered how that even worked, _is his mouth connected to the professor's lungs?_

"But firssst," Voldemort continued, "what ssspell have you cassst that protected your pet from me? How can a sssnake disssmisss the word of a parssselmouth?"

Harry crawled to his feet while Voldemort was talking, regretting for probably the first time that he didn't regularly carry his holly wand. Positive that Voldemort wasn't going to just let him go, and equally sure that he was screwed if he just raised his wand and tried to cast, Harry went for the element of surprise.

_~I should have taken him to your class, you would have been caught sooner.~_

Harry could tell that his plan worked, Vodemort's ugly eyes widened to almost cartoonish levels at hearing him Speak; and in that moment Harry slashed his wand at him. He didn't know the actual incantation or wand movement for this spell but he knew that it existed because Professor Sprout said it would be taught in her class in third year. Tina told him that was how she repaired that plate; if you already knew it was possible you could _make _your magic do it.

_~Cut.~_ Harry added for good measure as he felt a crazy strain on his strength, as well as a burning flare of pain in his scar.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Severus, look out!" Minerva tried to warn her colleague without shouting too loudly over the sound of her transfigured bagpipes, but the sleeping cerberus had kicked during its dream and flung the man a dozen feet across the room.

"Stupid… urgh," he groaned, "I think the blasted thing cracked some ribs." He paused for a moment to take stock of what he was feeling, "Worse than cracked, my hip as well I think."

"Do you-" The Transfiguration professor began, before she paused as she was struck by a powerful signal from the wards, "Oh my. The Headmaster just apparated into the school!"

"Get moving!" Snape hissed as he began dragging himself out of the room, "Be careful of Quirrell, the Headmaster will be heading this way but he might still be too late!"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Hearing Parseltongue coming from Potter was a shock to the system for Lord Voldemort; he had hesitated, and then done so again when the boy cast a cutting spell in the snake language. That hesitation almost cost him, but he wasn't the most feared dark lord in Britain's history for nothing; he wandlessly conjured a shield to deflect the spell. Unfortunately for him, the spell was so thick that it was as much a bludgeon as a cutter, and Quirrell's body staggered under the strain of keeping the shield together. It took every ounce of his concentration, but keep it together he did!

"_Deturbo!_"

The tripping jinx came from nowhere. Voldemort had only a moment to see Potter's mudblood friend to his left before he was falling onto his back, which was Quirrell's front. The Defense professor landed hard on his broken fingers. His pain response allowed him to undercut Voldemort's control of their shared body, and he rolled over to try and alleviate some of the pain.

Had he paid more attention to Potter, Voldemort might have been able to salvage the situation and at the very least take the students hostage before professors arrived; his enhanced senses let him cast without actually needing to see his target with his eyes. Instead, his mind was reeling from yet another mystery surrounding the Boy-Who-Lived that he couldn't explain. _Where had this girl _come _from? _The Dark Lord's mind raced, _I checked for anyone disillusioned, and I would sense an invisibility cloak… _

_ There!_ In his last moments occupying the body of Quirinus Quirrell, his magical senses, altered and augmented by his nature as a spectre, allowed him to notice a single thread of demiguise fur on the floor near where the girl was standing. A cloak, one that was almost so perfect that even _his _vision couldn't see it!

And then Lord Voldemort's world became fire.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Harry's heart soared when he saw Hermione take down Volde-Quirrell. But then he realized that now she was in danger too!

He hadn't fully thought out what his plan was when he started charging the fallen professor-plus-dark-lord, but he got his idea as he heard Najash call for him to stop and _~hide among the stones~_.Quirrell and Voldemort obviously had the Philosopher's Stone hidden on them somewhere!

Harry jumped at the professor before he could start to get up or roll back over, there was no way this would work if Voldemort could see him since he could cast wandlessly, grabbed the man's broken fingers and _yanked _on them. Quirrell screamed, Hermione screamed, _Voldemort screamed_… and then Harry joined them in screaming. Something was wrong, horribly wrong.

The fingers that Harry grabbed burned to ash, followed by the hand they had been attached to, even as Harry's own hand felt like he'd thrust it into the heart of a fire. The lack of support caused by their sudden absence caused the Boy-Who-Lived to fall further forwards, and to catch Quirrell's face with his outstretched hand by accident. At this point, Harry couldn't see anymore for the white-hot pain coming from both his hand where he was touching the professor and also his own lightning-shaped scar.

Abandoning his plan of trying to filch the Stone while the one-and-a-half dark wizards were distracted, Harry brought his other hand around to grab the back of Quirrell's head; fighting to keep hold as the possessed teacher as the man pushed with his remaining hand in a futile attempt to dislodge himself. Just when Harry was sure that he was going to literally die from the burning pain, he was blasted off the professor as a wave of black mist erupted from the man's convulsing body.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

The sound of screaming children gave Minerva Mcgonagall a magical strength she didn't know she possessed; rather than freezing the keys and grabbing the correct one she fired an incredibly overpowered _Finite_ at the door. The heavy enchantments being violently dismantled all at once actually caused the wooden door to crumble away as she approached.

Entering the chamber holding her trap for would-be thieves of the Philosopher's Stone, the Transfiguration professor's breath caught in her throat as she saw Harry Potter blasted away from Quirinus Quirrell by some kind of mist formed of dark magic.

"Curssse you, Harry Potter!" Came a voice from the black mist as a vaguely human face formed within it's wispy substance, a voice and face that Mcgonagall recognized from every single one of her nightmares, "What magic isss thisss?"

"Leave them alone, daemon! Begone!" Professor Mcgonagall shouted as she charged the spectre with her wand drawn. The spirit of Voldemort sneered once more before roaring in rage and flying straight up, passing through the tiny cracks in the floor and disappearing.

Mcgonagall kept her eyes on the ceiling for a few moments, but her attention was drawn back to the floor by Hermione's cries, "Harry! Harry, can you hear me?"

"Let me take a look Miss Granger." The professor offered, fighting not to gag at the smell of Quirrell's steaming body only a few feet away, and passed her wand over the unconscious Gryffindor, "_Somehow_, he appears to only be magically exhausted. I will need Poppy to confirm that for me. Where is Mister Weasley?"

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

Ron pretended to be asleep in his bed in the Hospital Wing while the adults argued over what had happened; hopeful that they would finish up soon now that all the others were asleep from potions. His family had fussed over him from the moment he was levitated in; his dad was waiting in the Wing when they arrived, and his mum and sister were brought in via floo as soon as Dudley and Justin were gotten out of the last chamber. Now though, he really wanted a chance to talk to the Headmaster alone. He wasn't sure his parents needed, or even _wanted_, to hear this, they were both clearly uncomfortable talking about You-Know-Who; but he knew that Dumbledore _needed _to. Once he told Dumbledore he could decide who else should know, like the DMLE for starters.

Dudley and Hermione had explained each side of the story, setting off a series of shouting matches over how things could have happened. Hearing that Justin had been held under an Unforgivable made Ron's blood cold, something he was amazed he could even feel after what he'd seen in the chess room.

Harry was still unconscious, his snake laying on his pillow beside him, and Madam Pomfrey had confidently told the others that he would be in-and-out of consciousness, but mostly out, for at least a week while his magical core refilled and resettled. His aunt was sitting with him; and she had already won the argument over whether she and Mister Lupin could stay in the castle with him for the night.

Eventually, Dumbledore convinced the others that they should wait until the morning, both for the adrenaline to wear off and also to try and determine how Quirrell had operated without being caught, before they argued over the events of the evening. Having already gotten permission to stay the night, Miss Petunia agreed that would be fine and Ron's parents agreed to return the next morning.

"Professor, wait." Ron whispered to the Headmaster as he stood to leave. Harry's Aunt was in the Hospital Wing's washroom and Madam Pomfrey was in her office, the first time Dumbledore had been alone since arriving.

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Look at this." Remus called Minerva and Dumbledore to Quirrell's desk. The three were combing through the Defense office looking for the way that an Unforgivable had been cast without pinging any wards; Aurors are supposed to be automatically notified if one is cast inside the school for Merlin's sake!

It hadn't taken too long to find the rune array that had been used, though. It was small-scale, but caused the Hogwarts detection wards to bend around the office and leave it uncovered. Once discovered, Mcgonagall had made the suggestion that they look for any other things that were helping keep Voldemort hidden in the school, "These contacts seem to have runes on them."

"Indeed?" Dumbledore answered with a slightly confused expression as he picked up the clear container with the contact lenses in it, "I suppose it is good that you checked behind me then, I assumed those were merely a holdover from his time as Professor of Muggle Studies. We should take those to Professor Babbling for study."

"He apparently kept a journal of his attempts to bypass the Stone's protections." Minerva added, waving the journal she had found in a small, hidden compartment of the professor's personal cabinet. "There are several students besides Mister Finch-Fletchley that need to be checked for the aftereffects of the Imperius, but unfortunately he didn't record their names. He obliviated all of them after his experiments on the protections as well."

o0-0oo0-0oo0-0oo0-0o

"Is something the matter Mister Weasley?" The Headmaster asked, "I was just going to catch up with Professor Mcgonagall and Mister Lupin to investigate the Defense office."

"Um, there was something Harry and Hermione left out, well… didn't know. Something after Harry jumped on Quirrell. I thought you would want to know."

"Oh?" Dumbledore wondered, "I thought you said you were injured, and stayed under Mister Potter's invisibility cloak the whole time?"

"Yeah," Ron admitted, "and I'm not proud of that. But because I was still under the cloak I got to see it!"

"See what?"

"Harry threw his Map down with the cloak." Ron explained, "It was still active, and when I looked away from Harry when he… you know… uh, I saw it on the Map." Ron took a steadying breath, he was starting to hyperventilate at finally feeling like he could get this off his chest! "The Map just showed Professor Quirrell's name until then, but when You-Know-Who stopped possessing him he showed up on the Map as well! I saw his real name! It's To-"

"_Obliviate._" Dumbledore whispered the spell as he deftly flicked his wand to point at the redhead's temple. With the boy so entirely focused on trying to tell the headmaster exactly what he wanted him to forget, Dumbledore had no problem excising only the memory of seeing the Map on the ground in that one instant.

"-m, huh? What was I saying?" Ron blinked in confusion.

"You were apologizing for not trying to help Mister Potter more this evening." Dumbledore replied, "You need not worry. You were injured, and no one expected you to try and oppose Voldemort with a broken ankle. Your friends would have been distraught had you gotten further injured on their account. Now, let me go fetch Madame Pomfrey and you can have a sleeping draught like them."

Leaving the Hospital Wing to join up with the others, Albus silently apologized to the first year. Some knowledge was simply too dangerous to be trusted to the minds of children; and, unfortunately, knowledge of Voldemort's real name would lead to discovering things that needed to be kept secret. As of now, the former Death Eaters in their society stayed relatively quiet and avoided drawing too much attention to themselves. They were all worried that anyone who tried to lead the others would be punished by their master on his inevitable return.

However, many of those followers might decry him and try to gather their fellows under a new banner if they knew the truth. Considering the average type of person Voldemort attracted, that could also easily lead to a breakdown of Secrecy if they still felt they were untouchable as a group. No, the Headmaster needed to keep this secret as a weapon in his arsenal for the right time: that the Dark Lord Voldemort was a Half-Blood.

**AN: The most recent chapters have been time consuming for me to write, but mostly because my brain is trying to move on to Year II when I'm not done here yet. It's most frustrating.**

**AN2: I'm sure that there will be people that complain about Dumbledore in this scene, but personally I think his actions here are quintessentially Dumbledore. IMO it is right up his alley to Obliviate someone of 'dangerous' knowledge both for their own good and also the "Greater Good."**


End file.
